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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Conspiracy, by R. C.  Dallas
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The New Conspiracy
+       with a short account of their institute; and observations
+       on the danger of systems of education independent of
+       religion
+
+Author: R. C.  Dallas
+
+Release Date: October 3, 2010 [EBook #33836]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW CONSPIRACY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
+are listed at the end of the text.
+
+French extracts are reproduced as printed, with hardly any accents.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE
+
+NEW CONSPIRACY
+
+AGAINST THE JESUITS
+
+DETECTED AND BRIEFLY EXPOSED;
+
+WITH A
+
+SHORT ACCOUNT OF THEIR INSTITUTE;
+
+AND
+
+OBSERVATIONS ON THE DANGER OF SYSTEMS OF
+
+EDUCATION INDEPENDENT OF RELIGION.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BY R. C. DALLAS, ESQ.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    Omnes qui se Societati addixerunt, in virtutum solidarum ac
+    perfectarum, et spiritualium rerum studium incumbant.
+
+      INSTITUTUM SOC. JESU, ed. Pragae, 1757, vol. ii, p. 72.
+
+    The causes which occasioned the ruin of this mighty body, as well as
+    the circumstances and effects with which it has been attended in the
+    different countries of Europe, are objects extremely worthy of the
+    attention of every intelligent observer of human affairs.
+
+      ROBERTSON'S CHARLES V, vol. iii, p. 225.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+PRINTED FOR JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY.
+
+1815.
+
+  C. WOOD, Printer,
+  Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{v}
+
+TO
+
+THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
+
+GEORGE CANNING, M. P.
+
+HIS MAJESTY'S AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY TO
+
+THE COURT OF PORTUGAL, _&c._ _&c._
+
+  SIR;
+
+Your absence from this country, and the observation of the historian, which
+I have adopted as a motto, will plead my excuse for dedicating this volume
+to you, without a previous intimation of my wish for that honour to my work
+and to myself. "The causes {vi} of the ruin of the society of Jesuits, with
+its circumstances and effects, are worthy of your attention." I have
+bestowed a considerable degree of labour in making myself acquainted with
+them, and, having been induced to throw the result of my inquiries into the
+form of a book, I know not to whom I can better present it than to a man,
+who, among the services which he has been active in rendering to his
+country, in her legislation and letters, has been the liberal advocate of
+the catholic body in general, and who, I am confident, will be pleased to
+see any society, or any individual, rescued from opprobrium, which time and
+colouring may have fixed on character. You are on the spot, Sir, where the
+Jesuits were persecuted with the greatest virulence; a circumstance, to
+{vii} my apprehension, not the most favourable to the investigation of
+truth, as it may well be imagined, that the prejudices, which were raised
+by the unprincipled and unrelenting minister of Joseph I, of Portugal, have
+too strongly enveloped it to be easily removed: but there are minds gifted
+with a discernment approaching to intuition, and, if any man can unweave
+the web, which has been spun around this unfortunate society, to your
+penetration may it be trusted. I have examined the subject with sincerity
+and disinterestedness, and, from conviction, I feel such interest in the
+establishment of the facts which I have stated, and the conclusions which I
+have drawn, that I dare hope that what I here offer to your consideration
+will one day be corroborated by testimony and {viii} talents, that shall
+remove all the doubt which the feebleness of my pen may leave upon it.
+
+  I have the honour to be,
+
+    Sir,
+
+      Your most obedient and
+
+        humble Servant,
+
+          R. C. DALLAS.
+
+_September 4, 1815._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{ix}
+
+PREFACE.
+
+Having formerly occupied my thoughts on the subject of promoting the
+knowledge and practice of religion among the Negroes in the West Indies, I
+was naturally led to inquire into the means, which had been successfully
+adopted in the catholic islands. I traced them to the enthusiastic labours
+of the clergy in general, particularly the Jesuits. The conduct of the
+fathers of that society in South America, not only excited in me
+admiration, but the highest esteem, veneration, and affection, for that
+enlightened and persevering body in the Christian cause, who had spread
+over the immense regions of that {x} continent more virtue and real
+temporal happiness than were enjoyed by any other quarter of the globe, as
+well as a well founded hope of eternal felicity, by the redemption of
+mankind through Christ. This undeniable merit made such an impression on my
+mind, that I never gave credit to the horrors, which have been attributed
+to the society.
+
+Among the objects of my attention, during a late residence in France, the
+restoration of the order became an interesting one, affording me some
+pleasing conversations, and inducing me to search into authorities
+respecting the actions and character of men, whom I had learned to venerate
+and to love, the result of which was a confirmation of my early
+predilection. On my return from the continent a short time since, I met
+with a pamphlet {xi} lately published, entitled "A Brief Account of the
+Jesuits," the ostensible object of which is to render the order odious, but
+the real one is seen to be an attempt to attach odium upon catholics in
+general, in the present crisis of the catholic question. I learned, from a
+literary friend, that this pamphlet had originally appeared as Letters in a
+newspaper, and that they had been answered in the same way, but that the
+answers had not been republished. These I obtained and perused. I received
+much satisfaction from them, and thought them worthy of being preserved.
+They did not, however, appear to me sufficiently full upon the subject, and
+I therefore resolved to publish them in the form of a pamphlet, with a
+preliminary statement. I consequently renewed my inquiries, and the more I
+inquire the more am I satisfied, that my veneration for this body of
+Christian instructors is not misplaced. {xii}
+
+It is perfectly evident to me, that there was an unjust conspiracy, which
+originated in France, to destroy the Jesuits; and that it terminated
+successfully about the middle of the last century. It is not an easy task
+to unfold to its full extent the injustice and various iniquities of it,
+since even respectable historians have been led away by the imposing
+appearance, which the then undetected and half-unconscious ingenious agents
+of jacobinism had, by every expedient of invention, of colouring, and of
+wit, given to the hue and cry raised by those bitter enemies of the order,
+the university and parliaments of France, and by some ministers of other
+governments, particularly by the marquis de Pombal, the minister of the
+king of Portugal. It is not my intention to undertake so laborious a task,
+but I trust, that the following exposition will unfold sufficient {xiii} of
+the injustice, which has been so unfeelingly and indefatigably heaped upon
+the Jesuits, to convince every unprejudiced man, that the suppression of
+the order has been injurious to society, and that the revival of it, far
+from being dangerous, must be beneficial. I am not afraid, that this
+expression of my sentiment will draw upon me any suspicion of disaffection
+to the state, or the established church; my sentiments are well known to my
+friends, and have been more than once publicly professed. The benefit,
+which I think will arise from the restoration of the society, will consist
+more particularly in the active and zealous cultivation of Christian
+virtues, and a spirit of LOYALTY among the catholics of all countries,
+whether protestant or catholic; and, unless we mean to say, with some of
+the furious reformers, that the religion of the catholics is to be {xiv}
+extirpated altogether, it is absurd to say, that they shall not have their
+best and most active instructors.
+
+When this volume had nearly gone through the press, in the course of
+reading I met with the following curious passage, extracted from a Letter
+to a Noble Lord by a Country Gentleman, entitled "Considerations on the
+Penal Laws," &c. published by the Dodsleys, of Pall-Mall, so long ago as
+1764, about two years after the suppression of the Jesuits in France, and
+eleven previous to their total suppression by Clement XIV; I insert it, as
+I think it will not be unacceptable to the reader:--"The rising generation
+are now forming their principles on the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau,
+D'Argens, and the philosopher of Sans-Souci; to whom may be added a long
+catalogue of authors of our own {xv} country. In FRANCE _grave magistrates
+already celebrate and_ THE FIRST COURTS OF JUDICATURE echo with the praises
+of _Julian and Diocletian_; calculations are made, and the period is
+pretended to be fixed, when Christianity is to be no more. The powerful
+weapon of ridicule is employed not against popery alone, but to render
+contemptible the whole Jewish and Christian revelation." The _grave
+magistrates_, and _first courts of judicature_, are no other than _the
+French parliaments_, who, we are informed by a member of the lower house,
+were "ever ready to support the national independence[1]:" we see by what
+steps, and we have felt with what success.
+
+In the following pages, I have shown, {xvi} that those _courts of
+judicature_ (which, far from being the immediate organs of the monarchs of
+France, as the same member asserts, were, for the greater part of the last
+century, in constant opposition to them, and the organs of rebellion) had
+conspired to effect the destruction of the Jesuits; and, I suspect, that
+"the mass of information," which supplies the proofs of the nascent
+revolutionary spirit, and which is to be met with in the histories of all
+Europe, are documents resulting from the piques and resentments of Pombal
+and other arbitrary ministers, who chose to take the consciences of their
+princes under their own care. These documents, afforded indeed by a most
+respected character, are nevertheless open to all the objections that arise
+from the principles and history of the intrigues of the ordinances alluded
+to. There is however some decency in recurring to {xvii} ordinances to
+found charges upon; the enemies of the Jesuits were not always so nice, as
+the following extract from one of their calumniators will show:--"When the
+Jesuits revolutionized Portugal, in 1667, and placed on the throne the
+infant don Pedro, sir Robert Southwell was there, as our ambassador from
+Charles II. His very curious correspondence with the duke of Ormond and
+lord Arlington is extant, and is a precious fragment of a great political
+event. The silent intrigues of the Jesuits do not seem to have been known
+to sir Robert; but, according to the _Recueil Chronologique_, published by
+THE COURT OF PORTUGAL, it is evident they were the principal actors, who,
+having overturned the monarchy, afterwards suppressed the democracy, and
+then, substituting an apparent aristocracy, reigned for some time over
+Portugal, concealed under that {xviii} cloak." This is a fine specimen of
+the warfare carried on against the society. The ambassador's ignorance of
+the intrigues of the Jesuits is not brought forward as a proof of their
+innocence, but as a reason why we should believe Pombal. As to the
+revolutionizing Portugal, and placing don Pedro on the throne, the
+ambassador could have been no stranger to the real causes of don Pedro's
+being proclaimed regent during the life of his brother Alonzo, from the
+incapacity of the latter, and the intrigues, first of his mother, and
+afterwards of his wife, the princess of Nemours.
+
+I would here leave the reader, with this fact fresh on his mind, to enter
+upon the book before him, but that I wish to detain him a moment longer to
+request him to carry also along with him the asseveration {xix} of the
+author, that he is entirely unconnected with the individuals of the body,
+whose character it is the object of this volume to place in a just point of
+view. Though familiar with accounts of the society, I am unacquainted with
+a single individual of it. The interest I feel is that which has been
+inspired by their virtues, and by the injustice and cruelty of their
+enemies, which I have ascertained to my complete conviction.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{xxi}
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+                                                PAGE
+  INTRODUCTION                                     1
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+
+  _Remarks on the Objects of the Author of
+  "A brief Account of the Jesuits," and
+  on his mode of conducting his Argument_          5
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  _Inquiry into the Character of the Authorities
+  against the Jesuits, and of
+  those in favour of them; with a notice
+  of some of the Crimes imputed to
+  them_                                           23
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  _Of the Order of the Jesuits, with the
+  prominent features of the Institute_           173
+
+  {xxii}
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  _Character of Pombal. Summary Observations,
+  and a brief notice of the tendency
+  and danger of Education independent
+  of Religion_                                   229
+
+  THE LETTERS OF CLERICUS                        259
+
+  APPENDIX.
+
+  _The Bull of Clement XIII_                     335
+
+  _The Judgment of the Bishops of France
+  in favour of the Jesuits_                      346
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ERRATUM, or Omission, Page 81.
+
+At the end of Henry IV's speech, add a reference to Dupleix, the same
+historian referred to in page 72. The speech is also to be found in the
+Memoirs of the Minister Villeroi, the confidant of Henry IV, in the
+Pleadings of Montholon, in the French Mercury of 1604, and in Matthieu,
+Henry IV's historiographer, whom that prince himself furnished with memoirs
+for his history. De Thou himself reports it, but in a mangled way, and
+professedly as _an extract_, yet clearly enough to corroborate the
+substance of it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{1}
+
+THE
+
+NEW CONSPIRACY
+
+AGAINST THE JESUITS,
+
+_&c._ _&c._
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+If there were a question whether there should be a change in the religion
+of the state, or whether the sceptre of Great Britain were better placed in
+the hand of a protestant or a catholic prince, my voice, slender as it is,
+should eagerly profess my attachment to the monarchy, and to the church of
+England. But no such question exists, or is likely to exist, in the
+contemplation of British subjects, of any persuasion or denomination
+whatever. It is with this conviction {2} on my mind, that I have resolved
+to publish the result of my inquiries respecting the Jesuits, and to show,
+that they do not merit the virulent slanders with which they have been
+attacked, or the treatment, horrid and inhuman, which they were made to
+suffer. A violent pamphlet, entitled "A brief Account of the Jesuits,"
+lately republished from a newspaper, shall serve to direct me over the mass
+of abuse, which I purpose to clear away in such a manner as to enable the
+reader to proceed, without prejudice, to the perusal of the following
+Letters, to which partiality might otherwise be attributed. They are
+replies to some of the charges of the writer of the pamphlet, and they also
+appeared in a newspaper, with the signature of _Clericus_, the assailant
+having assumed that of _Laicus_, which I mention, as it may be convenient
+for me to use these names occasionally.
+
+I purpose, 1st, to make some remarks on the objects of the author of the
+pamphlet, in his attack upon the Jesuits, and on his mode {3} of conducting
+his argument: 2dly, to examine the character of the authorities against the
+Jesuits, called by the writer historical evidences; and of those in favour
+of them; and to notice some of the charges against the society: 3dly, to
+give a brief account of the order, and of the fundamental character of it,
+with the prominent features of the Institute of Loyola, contrasted with the
+libellous _Monita Secreta_: and, 4thly, to conclude with observations
+arising out of the preceding subjects, and on the necessity of making
+religion the basis of education.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{5}
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+    _Remarks on the Objects of the Author of "A brief Account of the
+    Jesuits," and on his mode of conducting his Argument._
+
+The professed objects of the author of a pamphlet, entitled "A brief
+Account of the Jesuits," as stated in a preface, are "to examine the
+propriety of extending papal patronage and protestant protection to the
+Jesuits, and, as stated in page 2 of the pamphlet, to show, that _the
+revival of the order_ is so pregnant with danger as to call for the
+interference of parliament." The plan he pursues to effect these objects
+is, to give a summary of the history of the order, to furnish some
+_historical evidences_ in support of its correctness, and to argue from
+these for the affirmative of his proposition. The plan is well enough laid;
+but the author {6} has executed it in such a manner as to make it evident,
+that he was not in search of truth, that he deceives himself if he thinks
+he was, that he is only a violent and abusive disputant, that he is an
+enemy to the catholics in general, and that, the question on their claims
+being exhausted, he renovates the combat by attacking them through the
+sides of the Jesuits. When an advocate handles a cause, which it is his
+_duty_ to gain for his client, we know, that he brings forward every fact,
+and urges every argument, that tends to support the positions on which his
+cause hinges, sedulously masking every circumstance that contravenes his
+statement, and avoiding every suggestion that weakens his reasoning upon
+it. But the man, who is in pursuit of truth, of whatever nature it be,
+looks at his object on all sides; he handles it, not to make of it what he
+wishes, but to determine what it is; he analyses, he re-composes; he takes
+the good and the bad as he finds them, and truth results from his
+investigation. Let us see which of these two characters belongs to the
+writer of the pamphlet. Every word of his {7} "Historical Summary" is
+intended to place the Jesuits in an odious point of view; nor is a single
+sentence admitted into it by which one could be led to imagine, that any
+thing good had ever originated from them, or that they were not universally
+demons in the shape of men. The writer goes in search of matter to compile
+his Summary, and he finds an account of the Jesuits composed on the
+authority of various publications, which have appeared at different times.
+In a part of this narrative, he finds all that has been said to blacken the
+order, and, also, a genuine passage of their history, which no man of any
+feeling can read without enthusiastic admiration; now, would the writer,
+who was in search of truth, have selected only that which was calculated to
+produce condemnation, without giving his reader an opportunity of comparing
+facts and drawing his own inferences? Yet this is really the case with this
+enemy of the catholic cause, whose Summary is verbatim extracted from
+Robertson's Charles V, as far as it answered the purpose of {8} his attack.
+Who, after reading the part selected, would suspect, if he did not know it
+before, that the following paragraph, from the same elegant pen, closed the
+character of the Jesuits, and must have confounded the eye of their
+assailant, since it failed to wring a tribute of praise from his
+heart?--"But as I have pointed out the dangerous tendency of the
+constitution and spirit of the order with the freedom becoming an
+historian, the candour and impartiality _no less requisite in that
+character_ call on me to add one observation: That no class of regular
+clergy in the Romish church has been more eminent for decency, and even
+purity of manners, than the major part of the order of Jesuits. The maxims
+of an intriguing, ambitious, interested policy, _might_ influence those,
+who governed the society, and might even corrupt the heart, and pervert the
+conduct of _some individuals_, while the greater number, engaged in
+literary pursuits, or employed in the functions of religion, was left to
+the guidance of those common principles, which restrain men from {9} vice,
+and excite them to what is becoming and laudable[2]."
+
+{10}
+
+The author, in a note, acknowledges, that his Summary does not _wholly_ lay
+claim to {11} originality. It is, in fact, _all_ copied: why then did he
+not cite his authority? and, when he was copying, why did he omit to copy
+the passages that stared him in the face? Clearly from an attorney-like
+motive, because it would have injured his cause, and would have
+prepossessed his reader with an idea, that, whether the charges against
+some of the rulers of the order were well-founded or not, the generality of
+the Jesuits were estimable men, devoting themselves to the good of mankind,
+and who had spread over the earth a very considerable share of human
+happiness: clearly because he foresaw, that his reader would argue with
+himself, that if, in despotic times, only a few busied themselves with
+political affairs, while the body at large were good men, engaged in
+zealously promoting the welfare, both temporal and eternal, of their
+fellow-creatures, it would be unnatural to suppose, that, in the present
+enlightened times, the many would become corrupt, or even the few engage
+again in intrigues dangerous to society; and that he {12} would conclude,
+that the labour of the author resolved itself into a new attempt against
+tolerating the catholic religion; while in favour of toleration he would
+find, in addition to the suggestions of his reason, his memory supplied
+with innumerable, irrefragable arguments, which for years past have
+resounded throughout the empire, in the houses of parliament as well as in
+the remotest villages, enforced by princes of the realm with all the energy
+of learning and of eloquence, as well as by individuals of every class of
+men, in speeches, and in writings, in books, pamphlets, and the columns of
+such newspapers as are open to liberal discussion[3].
+
+{13}
+
+The writer of the pamphlet, not satisfied with omitting whatever might tend
+to defeat his object, industriously rakes out the most atrocious
+imputations from the avowed enemies of the Jesuits, and classes their
+authorities with genuine history, taking them for granted, never examining
+the hands through which they passed, happy in having one and only one great
+name on his side, that of the celebrated and very extraordinary genius,
+Pascal. When the Provincial Letters were alluded to, as attacking a
+supposed lax system of morals, did not truth require that they should be
+stated to have been the satirical effusions of a writer, who had espoused
+the cause of the Jansenists, the violent opposers of the Jesuits; and that
+the ridicule which they contained had been declared by another great wit,
+who was no enemy to ridicule, nor friend to religion (Voltaire), to be
+completely misapplied. A lover of truth, when {14} balancing opinions as
+proofs, would not have failed to quote from him the following passage: "It
+is true, indeed, that the whole book (_the Provincial Letters_) was built
+upon a false foundation; for the extravagant notions of a few Spanish and
+Flemish Jesuits were _artfully_ ascribed _to the whole society_. Many
+absurdities might likewise have been discovered among the Dominican and
+Franciscan casuists, but this _would not have answered the purpose_, for
+the whole raillery was to be levelled only at the Jesuits. These letters
+were intended to prove, that the Jesuits had formed a design to corrupt
+mankind; a design which no sect of society ever had, or can have."
+
+With such enemies as the Jansenists, will it be thought extraordinary, that
+a thousand fabrications of those days blackening the Jesuits may be
+referred to? With such enemies as in later times appeared against them, in
+the host of new philosophers and jacobins, is it wonderful that there
+should be modern forgeries? {15} One such suffrage, as that which I have
+quoted from Robertson, is of itself sufficient to outweigh folios of
+charges originating in the jealous passions of a rival sect, in the
+effusions of a mad mistaken philosophy, or in magisterial persecution,
+which, to use the vigorous language of a living genius, in "the destruction
+of the Jesuits, that memorable instance of puerile oppression, of jealousy,
+ambition, injustice, and barbarity, for these all concurred in the act,
+gave to public education a wound, which a whole century perhaps will not be
+able to heal. It freed the phalanx of materialists from a body of
+opponents, which still made them tremble. It remotely encouraged the
+formation of sanguinary clubs, by causing the withdrawing of all religious
+and prudent congregations, in which the savage populace of the Faubourg St.
+Antoine were tamed by the disciples of an Ignatius and a Xavier. Such men
+as Poree and La Rue, Vaniere and Jouvenci, in the academic chairs;
+Bourdaloue, Cheminais, Neuville, L'Enfant, in the pulpit; {16} Segaud,
+Duplessis, and Beauregard[4], in the processions of the cross, in the
+public streets and ways, were, perhaps, alike necessary to secure
+tranquillity in this world and happiness in the next[5]."
+
+In assisting my memory, I have been led to compare the writer's extracts
+from Robertson with the pages of the historian himself, and I have found
+him, not only occasionally disfiguring the style on points of little
+moment, by turning the words, but giving to the author's words a sense
+which they were not intended to bear, by means of Italic types and
+additions. For instance: the historian says, "As it was the professed
+intention of the order of Jesuits to labour with {17} unwearied zeal in
+promoting the salvation of men, this engaged them, of course, in many
+active functions." On reading Robertson's work, would any one imagine, that
+the author meant to insinuate, that the intention was insincere, and a mere
+cloak to political vices? Is it not clear from all he writes, as well as
+from this passage taken singly, that he gave the Jesuits credit for their
+sincerity in devoting themselves to the salvation of men? Yet has the
+writer of the pamphlet, by causing the word _professed_ to be printed in
+Italics, called upon his reader to take his sense of Robertson's words, and
+to believe, that the word _professed_ implies deceit, instead of the _open_
+and _declared_ intention of the Jesuits. Not content with this low
+falsifying of Robertson's ideas by Italic implication, he practises the
+same trick by an Italic addition of some lines of his own to the text of
+the historian, as follows: "_their great and leading maxim having uniformly
+been, to do evil that good might come_." Can any thing be more
+reprehensible? {18}
+
+I will adduce one instance more of the disingenuousness of this writer.
+Speaking, _exclusively_, of the Jesuits, he charges _them_ with "rendering
+Christianity utterly odious in the vast empire of Japan[6]," and with
+"enormities in China Proper." To have implicated other priests would not,
+as Voltaire observed, answer the purpose: the Jesuits, as before, must be
+isolated to be recrushed. Now, in this, as in the other accusations, we
+shall find the anti-catholic writers including other orders. Let us see
+what one of these writers says upon this occasion: after speaking of the
+pride, avarice, and folly of the clergy, he tells us of an {19} execution
+of twenty-six persons, "in the number whereof were _two foreign Jesuits_,
+and several other fathers of the _Franciscan_ order." And a little after,
+the same writer says, "some _Franciscan_ friars were guilty at this time of
+a most imprudent step: they, during the whole of their abode in the
+country, preached openly in the streets of Macao, where they resided; and
+of their own accord built a church, contrary to the imperial commands, and
+contrary to the advice and earnest solicitations _of the Jesuits_[7]." The
+authority of the Encyclopedia Britannica will not be objected to by the
+enemies of the catholics; nor, I presume, will that of Montesquieu, who
+gives a very different reason for the Christian religion being so odious in
+Japan: "We have already," says he, "mentioned the perverse temper of the
+people of Japan. The magistrates considered the firmness which Christianity
+inspires, when they attempted to make the people renounce their faith, as
+in {20} itself most dangerous: they fancied that it increased their
+obstinacy. The law of Japan punishes severely the least disobedience. They
+ordered them to renounce the Christian religion: they did not renounce it;
+this was disobedience: they punished this crime; and the continuance in
+disobedience seemed to deserve another punishment[8]." As to the enormities
+in China, we shall find, upon inquiry, that the Jesuits were not more
+responsible for those. The following is an extract from a geographical
+account of China: "P. Michael Rogu, a Neapolitan Jesuit, first opened the
+mission in China, and led the way in which those of his order that followed
+him have acquired so much reputation. He was succeeded by P. Ricci, of the
+same society, who continued the work with such success, that he is
+considered by the Jesuits as the principal founder of this mission. He was
+a man of very extraordinary talents. He had the art of rendering himself
+agreeable {21} to every body, and by that means acquired the public esteem.
+He had many followers. At length, in 1630, the Dominicans and Franciscans
+took the field, though but as gleaners of the harvest after the Jesuits;
+and now it was that contentions broke out." This is not the place to enter
+particularly into the charges brought against the order; all I here mean to
+show is, with what want of candour the Jesuits are reviled; and I think,
+after what has been stated, it cannot be doubted, that the chief object of
+the writer of the pamphlet is to excite a ferment against the catholic
+claims, nor that his mode of conducting his proposed inquiry is that of a
+violent partizan, and not that of a genuine philosopher in search of truth.
+Indeed, he almost assures us of it himself at the conclusion of his
+preface, where he says: "It may, perhaps, appear from the _inquiry_ (_that
+is, the attack_), that the crimes of the order are fundamental, and not
+accidental." In omitting, therefore, to cite documents, which show that
+they are not fundamental, does he not admit, {22} does he not plainly say,
+_I have a point to gain, in which candour has no part; and_, quocumque
+modo, _it must be gained_? Such is the case, and I must allow him great
+perseverance in collecting titles of volumes long since forgotten; but to
+the lovers of truth, to the nation at large, and to the parliament in
+particular, or at least as far as my unpractised voice can be heard, I
+exclaim, _hunc cavete_, et similes ei.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{23}
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+    _Inquiry into the Character of the Authorities against the Jesuits, and
+    of those in favour of them; with a notice of some of the Crimes imputed
+    to them._
+
+Having seen how little credit is due to the spirit of the pamphlet before
+us, let us inquire what credit is due to the authorities produced against
+the Jesuits, and take a view of those in favour of them; and afterwards
+briefly notice some of the crimes imputed to them.
+
+In stating the results of my inquiry respecting the authorities, it may
+save some trouble to begin with those on which Robertson founded his
+account of the order. I am persuaded that, had he written at the present
+era, his {24} authorities would have been sought in very different sources,
+and his whole account of the order of Jesus would have been very different
+to what it is. Far from impeaching that elegant writer with wilful
+misrepresentations, or want of caution in selecting those authorities, I
+readily give him credit for seeking the best he could obtain when he wrote;
+and the more, from his taking some pains, in a note[9], to inform his
+readers, that he believes his two principal authorities, Monclar and
+Chalotais, to be respectable magistrates and elegant writers. But I
+maintain, that, if he had seen them in the point of view in which they have
+since appeared, as leaders on of the jacobinical philosophy, and of the
+French revolution, it is not likely that he would have honoured their
+fabrications with the weight of historical testimony: that their _Comptes
+Rendus_ were fabrications we shall presently see. Let us first view the
+list; _viz._ Monclar, Chalotais, D'Alembert, Histoire des Jesuites, the
+French Encyclopedie, Charlevoix, Juan, and {25} Ulloa. As the three last
+names are authorities in favour of the Jesuits, I shall not notice them at
+present. D'Alembert and the Encyclopedie may go together, for he and
+Diderot, who wrote the article _Jesuite_ in that work, were the chief
+directors of it. To men, who have recovered from the stun of jacobinism, it
+is hardly necessary to say, that the destruction of the Jesuits was of the
+first importance to the success of D'Alembert and Diderot's philosophical
+reform of human nature. The article written by the latter was completely
+refuted by a French Jesuit named Courtois, but only the writers against the
+order were read or cited. When the Jesuits first appeared in France, the
+parliament hated them as friends of the pope; the university as rival
+teachers. These two bodies combined to exterminate them. The university was
+perpetually bringing actions against them before the parliaments, but they
+found protection from the throne and the ministry. The university was
+exasperated at the desertion of their scholars, who flocked to the Jesuit
+schools, and at {26} the loss of their emoluments called _landi_, paid by
+students to the professors: the Jesuits taught gratuitously, and the high
+reputation of the celebrated Maldonado enraged the doctors beyond measure.
+The parliaments and the doctors were the chief fomenters of the league; and
+they were seconded by all the religious orders, the Jesuits excepted. The
+parliament, headed by Harlay, made flaming harangues and arrets: the
+doctors of the university and friars exhibited fanatical processions and
+sermons; they pronounced Henry III and Henry IV excommunicated tyrants;
+they canonized Jacques Clement; they rewarded his mother and family; they
+openly preached regicide. Their rage equalled that of the modern jacobins.
+They all, of course, detested the Jesuits, who, we may believe, were also
+obnoxious to the Hugonot party. When the league was expiring, by the
+conversion of Henry IV, the parliaments and university, constrained to
+abjure it, were nevertheless determined upon effecting the banishment of
+the Jesuits before {27} the king could enter on his government. The doctors
+renewed their suits, and employed as advocates Arnaud, Pasquier, and Dolle,
+who went into the courts with certainty of success. Completely successful
+they would have been, but for the wisdom of the minister, the duke de
+Sully, who, though a leader of the Hugonots, and consequently not biassed
+in favour of the Jesuits, indeed evidently their enemy, was too nobly
+minded to give an advantage to their assailants, which his master would not
+have done. He stopped the proceedings, by interposing the authority of the
+absent king, "which," said he, "is not to be compromised _pour une pique de
+pretres et de theologiens_[10]." The prosecutors and the judges,
+disconcerted for the time, resolved to lose no opportunity to effect their
+object, and they soon found one in the crime of Chatel, in which they
+triumphed without a shadow of proof. Not a Jesuit was ever proved to have
+entered into the league: no writer accuses them of it, the advocates {28}
+just mentioned excepted; and their invectives, amassed in _Les Extraits des
+Assertions_, are the sole foundation of all that is said by Monclar,
+Chalotais, and the other authors of the _Comptes Rendus_.
+
+It was necessary to enter into this detail to enable the reader to trace
+the foul sources of the chief authorities on which Robertson relied: but
+what shall we think of them, in spite of that historian's compliment to the
+elegance of their pens, when we hear, that these _procureurs_ were but the
+_nominal_ authors of their respective _Comptes Rendus_, the mean
+instruments of the ingenious atheists, who were preparing France for the
+age of reason, the liberty of jacobinism, and the murders of philosophy?
+That presented by Chalotais was written by D'Alembert himself; that of
+Riquet, procureur general of the parliament of Thoulouse, was composed by
+Comtezat, a notoriously debauched priest; that of Monclar, of Aix, was sent
+to him from Paris, with a promise of being the next chancellor of France,
+if he would adopt it, and {29} engage his parliament in the cause. The
+venerable president of that parliament, D'Eguilles, refusing to concur in
+the measure, was, through his means, banished, and his adherents with him,
+by a _lettre de cachet_. Monclar died repentant, and retracted all that he
+had said in presence of the bishop of Apt, who made a minute of the fact.
+As for Chalotais; would the historian have cited him had he seen the
+following character of that lawyer, drawn by a pen not inferior to his own,
+distinguished by various works of genius, and which was employed on one of
+the most interesting portions of English history, when his sovereign,
+having occasion for his talents in a trying crisis of his affairs, called
+him to his councils?[11] "The procureur general of Bretagne, La Chalotais,
+eager to possess popularity, in order that he might arrive at power, {30}
+enthusiastic in his friendships, violent in his hatred, both of which were
+to him concerns of interest rather than of sentiment; blending with these
+private principles the formidable powers of his public ministry, being the
+oracle of a parliament, which, consisting of the first nobility of the
+country, always acted in concert with, and never in opposition to the
+States; this man had it in his power to arm his ambition or his vengeance
+with the sword of justice; he could give a legal sanction to tumult, and
+make trifles appear of serious importance; he could convert the most vapid
+declamation into the gravest denunciation, and, in a word, could assist the
+party, that he chose to espouse, with the whole artillery of _decrees_ and
+_arrets_, which may be regarded as the _ultima ratio_ of the parliament, on
+the same principle, that cannon are the _ultima ratio_ of kings. The
+instant that such a man took part in the dispute, it might well be
+expected, that the whole province would be immediately thrown into
+universal confusion. In the year 1764, the duke D'Aiguillon, {31}
+commandant of Bretagne, a peer of France, grand nephew of cardinal
+Richelieu, nephew of the then minister, lastly a friend of the Jesuits, and
+in great favour with the dauphin, was denounced in the parliament of
+Bretagne, by the procureur general on his arrival in Paris. This man, who
+was the violent enemy of that society, was also the devoted agent of the
+king's mistress, and of the prime minister, who were leagued together to
+bring about the destruction of the Order."
+
+So much for the reliance to be placed on La Chalotais. There remains
+another authority of Robertson's to be noticed, _viz._ "The History of the
+Jesuits." He does not mention the name of the author of it, but no doubt it
+was Coudrette's, as he would otherwise have felt it incumbent upon him to
+make some distinction. This man was a decided partizan of the French
+parliaments, and well known to be an inveterate enemy of the Jesuits. As
+his character is well drawn in the following {32} Letters[12], I shall say
+nothing more of him here, than that his work evidently appears unworthy of
+being referred to as an authority.
+
+From what has been already said, and from the neglect shown by Robertson to
+the multitude of other writers adopted as authorities in the pamphlet
+before me, it is but too evident that there long existed a conspiracy
+against a society, whose principles and energy awed infidelity and
+rebellion, and whose superior talents excited jealousy and hatred. Let us,
+however, see what kind of men they are to whom the new accuser of the
+society refers us for proofs of their being such demons as he has
+represented them. We will afterwards take a view of those, who think and
+write differently, and we shall be able to determine on which side
+authority lies.
+
+I will not pretend to go numerically through the catalogue presented in the
+pamphlet. {33} Publications infinitely multiplied deluged Europe for the
+purpose of overwhelming the Jesuits; an infinity of references, therefore,
+if not of authorities, remains at the service of their enemies, and it
+would be useless and tiresome, if not impossible, to wade through them. I
+shall principally notice those on which the conspirator before me places
+his bitterest reliance, such as are most inveterate, most profuse and
+blackening in their accusations; touching slightly, however, or not at all,
+on those sufficiently refuted in the succeeding Letters. To refute all that
+was printed against the devoted society of Jesus would require a complete
+history of the destruction of the Order[13], but within the limits of this
+brief exposition it is not possible to go very deep into the scrutiny of
+the malice, and of the means resorted to for the purpose of effecting it.
+To remove some of the thick, poisonous weeds, which mantle the surface of
+the subject, so as to show the body clear {34} beneath, is the extent of my
+present undertaking; and, if I appear concise, one consideration is in my
+favour, namely, that imputations advanced by a thousand different writers
+are not _multiplied_ but _repeated_, and that reverberations of falsehood
+are still falsehood. We have already seen, that even the powers and
+ingenuousness of a Robertson have been unable to extract from them the
+voice of truth.
+
+France has produced the greatest number of writers against the society. The
+speeches and publications of those in the times of the league, as I have
+said, furnished the original matter to the authors of the _Comptes Rendus_;
+the theme of regicide, the tales of the Jesuits Varade, Gueret, Guignard,
+the whole guilt of the league, &c., to which more recent matter,
+particularly lax doctrines of morality, has been added. This is all
+collected in the _Extraits des Assertions_, a work evidently replete with
+studied fabrications, as is shown by Beaumont, archbishop of Paris,
+Montesquiou, bishop of Sarlat, and in the {35} _Re__ponse aux Assertions_.
+I believe, that this _Reponse_ and the _Apologie de l'Institut_ are the
+only works written in defence of the society, which the Jesuits publicly
+avowed. These are unanswerable, and should be referred to by historians.
+
+The characters of Prynne and De Thou are drawn in the following
+Letters[14]. De Thou was a parliamentarian. Of Prynne I shall farther
+observe, that, besides his notoriety as a factious agent, lord Clarendon
+informs us, that he had been looked upon as a man of reproachful character
+previous to the infamous severities of the star chamber, which was the
+means of his obtaining consideration, for those of his profession, and
+others, thought, that persons, in his situation of life, should not be
+treated so ignominiously[15]. His character may be viewed in Hume's
+History[16]; and here let me observe, that {36} it was not only the
+catholics he attacked, but the manners of the times and the church; for
+which he was punished. Prynne was a thorough-paced puritan: through him and
+others of the same stamp the existing house of commons were glad to debase
+the government, and they absolutely reversed the sentence, which had been
+passed on him and other libellers. "The more ignoble these men were," says
+Hume, "the more sensible was the insult upon royal authority[17]." What
+writer, valuing his own respectability, would cite such a creature as this?
+One of a sect, who, the writer of the pamphlet himself tells us, were
+united with the Jesuits, to whom their pulpits were open, for the purpose
+of overawing the parliament, and compelling it to destroy the king. This
+too is cited from Prynne, to whom he refers for _much valuable evidence_.
+
+The pamphlet says, "see Rapin." The name has something less barbarous in
+the sound than {37} most of the others cited by the writer. Let us see
+Rapin. We find, in the pages of this historian, the names of Jesuit and
+catholic indiscriminately used, as accused of plots, suffering the rack,
+and confuting the accusations brought against them by the most persuasive
+simplicity of their protestations of innocence, and the intrepidity of
+their deaths. The pretended plots, in the days of Elizabeth and of the
+Stuarts, cited by a writer in 1815, against the toleration of the
+catholics[18]! Well, but see the _state trials,_ the _actio in proditores_,
+drawn up by our own judges, &c.[19] "Nothing," says {38} Hume, "can be a
+stronger proof of the fury of the times, than that lord Russel,
+notwithstanding {39} the virtue and humanity of his character, seconded the
+house of commons in the barbarous scruple of the sheriffs" on the power of
+the king to remit the hanging and quartering of {40} lord Stafford, that
+innocent victim to his pure attachment to God. Afterwards, when lord Russel
+was himself condemned, the king, in remitting the same part of the sentence
+for treason, said, "he shall find, that I am possessed of that prerogative,
+which, in the case of lord Stafford, he thought proper to deny me."
+
+I cannot here refrain from contrasting the intelligence, the spirit, and
+the wisdom of that great and distinguished statesman, Charles James Fox,
+with the tame and adoptive, though virulent, disposition of a writer, who,
+in another part of his pamphlet, has dared to warn every man from speaking
+in favour of the catholic priests of Ireland, lest he should be provoked to
+overwhelm the whole body with damning proofs--proofs charitably kept _in
+petto_, by this insinuator of more than he chooses to say. Speaking of one
+of the imaginary popish plots, Mr. Fox expresses himself thus: "Wherefore,
+if this question were to be decided upon the ground of authority, the
+reality of the plot {41} would be admitted; but there are cases, where
+reason speaks so plainly, as to make all argument drawn from authority of
+no avail, and this is surely one of them." And, a few pages after, we have
+the following striking passage: "Even after the dissolution of his last
+parliament, when he had so far subdued his enemies as to be no longer under
+any apprehensions from them, the king did not think it worth while to save
+the life of Plunket, the popish archbishop of Armagh, of whose innocence no
+doubt could be entertained. But this is not to be wondered at, since, in
+all transactions relative to the popish plot, minds, of a very different
+cast from Charles's, became, as by some fatality, divested of all their
+wonted sentiments of justice and humanity. Who can read, without horror,
+the account of that savage murmur of applause, which broke out upon one of
+the villains at the bar swearing positively to Stafford's having proposed
+the murder of the king? And how is this horror deepened when we reflect,
+that in that odious cry were, probably, {42} mingled the voices of men to
+whose memory every lover of the English constitution is bound to pay the
+tribute of gratitude and respect! Even after condemnation, lord Russel
+himself, whose character is wholly (this instance excepted) free from the
+stain of rancour or cruelty, stickled for the severer mode of executing the
+sentence, in a manner which his fear for the king's establishing a
+precedent of pardoning in cases of impeachment (for this, no doubt, was his
+motive) cannot satisfactorily excuse[20]." Now what does the writer of the
+pamphlet before me say? "It is fashionable, with many reasoners, to treat
+all history as a fable, and to set up for themselves in matters of policy,
+in defiance of the testimony of antiquity. These persons would assign the
+same office to the records of past ages, as they would to the _stern
+lights_ of a vessel, which serve only to throw a light over the path which
+has been passed, and not over that which lies before us. I trust, however,
+that there are yet many among us who {43} have not been so taught." It is,
+indeed, but too fashionable to put up fantastic reasoning against
+authority, and particularly against sacred authority; but reason, which
+knows to distinguish the nature of authority; reason, which is bold in the
+affairs of men, and humble in its permitted intercourse with God; reason,
+as Fox and Hume, and all historians worthy the title, convince us, steps
+not out of its province when it interposes to rectify misleading records or
+historical assertions; and in no case is it more eminently required than in
+the history of the order of Jesus, which passion, interest, and ability
+have united to disfigure. What is meant by the allusion to _stern lights_ I
+am at a loss to conjecture. I am not much disposed, in a work of this kind,
+to go into verbal or rhetorical criticism; but when a man writes with such
+pompous and despotic decision as this author does, one has a right to
+expect of him, when he amuses himself with figurative language, a clear
+notion of what he aims at. When, therefore, he insinuates that such
+reasoners as Hume {44} and Fox are reprehensible for serving records of
+past ages like _stern lights_ of a vessel, instead of like modern moons to
+carriages (for moons evidently ran in the writer's head), we are puzzled
+between what he says and what he means. From his own words we are bound to
+take it for granted that he means to condemn reasoning, and to approve of a
+pertinacious adherence to records, however inconsistent and contradictory;
+whereas, by his intended simile, he blames the reasoners for making use of
+records; for, if stern lights must serve as a simile, records are certainly
+more analogous to them than to carriage moons, which are concurrent aids,
+that show the driver nothing but the way before him, and are not of the
+least use to those travellers who are coming after on the same road; stern
+lights, on the contrary, are intimations at sea, from those who go before
+to those who follow, of the track to be pursued. The truth, I believe, is,
+that the author does not know the use of stern lights, and imagines that
+mariners illuminate aft to amuse fishes in {45} the wakes of their ships.
+Records, no doubt, are moral, as ship lanthorns are physical lights to
+guide; but treachery or ignorance, in either, may mislead, in which case
+the seaman will consult his compass and the inquirer his reason[21].
+
+{46}
+
+But to return from this digression to Rapin. We learn from him, that
+Elizabeth herself, {47} whom no one will charge with over-tenderness,
+reprobated the cruelties practised upon the catholics. "Meanwhile," says
+he, "the queen sent for the judges of the realm, and sharply reproved them
+for having been too severe in the _tortures_ they had made these men
+suffer[22]." We have only to reflect on this passage of {48} Rapin, to
+appreciate the evidence furnished by the state trials of those days, the
+_actio in proditores_, and the reporters of "Criminels de Lege Majeste," so
+often cited by the enemies of the Jesuits. It was not only in catholic
+countries, we see, that the rack and other modes of torture were made the
+tests of truth; but they have been so long abhorred by Englishmen, that I
+fondly believed that there was not one among us who would allow himself to
+cite the efficacy of them as a proof in any argument. Their _inefficacy_,
+indeed, may justly be cited in testimony; for what they extort is in all
+probability false, what they fail to extort is in all probability true. If
+this reasoning be sound, how many blameless, how many virtuous men has the
+hand of party in this country consigned to cruel deaths[23]! In addition to
+what Rapin {49} states of Elizabeth, it is not irrelevant to add here what
+Camden reports of her on the same subject: he tells us expressly, that she
+thought most of the priests were innocent, or, which is the same thing,
+that she did not believe them guilty. His words are, _Plerosque tamen ex
+misellis his sacerdotibus exitii in patriam conflandi conscios fuisse non
+credidit_[24].
+
+Of the fairness of their trials in still later times, those of Charles II,
+we have specimens in Hume's History. Why was not Hume quoted by the writer
+of the pamphlet? We find more of Jesuits in his pages than in Rapin's, and
+something against them too; but Hume, like Robertson, was guided by
+principle {50} on this subject; that is, he stated the character of the
+order from the pictures which he had received of it; but, at the same time,
+he exposed the injustice of the trials in which the Jesuits were involved,
+and the invalidity of the evidence produced against them. The whole of his
+sixty-seventh chapter is, in fact, however unintended, a memorial in favour
+of the Jesuits, and a philippic on their enemies. As these pages may fall
+into the hands of some persons who may not have the opportunity or the
+leisure to read this portion of his history, I shall make the following
+extract, as a testimony of the horrid injustice practised in former times;
+and I am very much mistaken if any man of feeling and sound intellect will
+read it without indignation against the Oateses and Bedloes of the present
+day.--"But even during the recess of parliament there was no interruption
+to the prosecution of the catholics accused: the king found himself obliged
+to give way to this popular fury. Whitebread, provincial of the Jesuits,
+Fenwic, {51} Gavan, Turner, and Harcourt, all of them of the same order,
+were first brought to their trial. Besides Oates and Bedloe, Dugdale, a new
+witness, appeared against the prisoners. This man had been steward to lord
+Aston, and, though poor, possessed a character somewhat more reputable than
+the other two; but his account of the intended massacres and assassinations
+was equally monstrous and incredible. He even asserted, that two hundred
+thousand papists in England were ready to take up arms. The prisoners
+proved, by sixteen witnesses from St. Omers, students, and most of them
+young men of family, that Oates was in that seminary at the time when he
+swore that he was in London: but, as they were catholics, and disciples of
+the Jesuits, their testimony, both with the judges and jury, was totally
+disregarded. Even the reception, which they met with in court, was full of
+outrage and mockery. One of them saying, that Oates always continued at St.
+Omers, if he could believe his senses; 'you {52} papists,' said the chief
+justice, 'are taught not to believe your senses.' It must be confessed,
+that Oates, in opposition to the students of St. Omers, found means to
+bring evidence of his having been at that time in London: but this
+evidence, though it had, at that time, the appearance of some solidity, was
+afterwards discovered, when Oates himself was tried for perjury, to be
+altogether deceitful. In order farther to discredit that witness, the
+Jesuits proved, by undoubted testimony, that he had perjured himself in
+father Ireland's trial, whom they showed to have been in Staffordshire at
+the very time when Oates swore that he was committing treason in London.
+But all these pleas availed them nothing against the general prejudices.
+They received sentence of death; and were executed, persisting to their
+last breath, in the most solemn, earnest, and deliberate, though
+disregarded, protestations of their innocence[25]."
+
+{53}
+
+I must not forget, that I am still producing the authorities quoted against
+the Jesuits. Having been led by these into adducing the favourable
+testimony of Hume, I mean not to dissemble his objections to the order:
+these are, their _zeal for proselytism_, and _their cultivation of learning
+for the nourishment of superstition_. The zeal for proselytism, in itself,
+can be no crime; and, if unconnected with the treasons, persecutions, and
+vices, so abundantly charged upon the catholics, it is a natural sentiment
+of the mind. It is indeed that propensity, which, so violently condemned in
+catholics, has been the chief propagator of every sect since the
+reformation to the present moment, and not without symptoms of rebellion,
+and even of king-killing. Some instances, to show this, will not be
+uninteresting here. The heads of the reformers, in Scotland, as we are
+informed by Hume, being _desirous_ to _propagate_ their principles, entered
+privately into a bond, or association, and called themselves the
+_congregation of_ {54} _the Lord_, in contradistinction to the established
+church, which they denominated the congregation of Satan. The tenour of the
+bond was as follows:--"We, perceiving how Satan, in his members, the
+antichrist of our time, does cruelly rage, seeking to overthrow and to
+destroy the gospel of Christ and his congregation, ought, according to our
+bounden duty, to strive, in our master's cause, even unto the death, being
+certain of the victory in him. We do therefore promise, before the majesty
+of God and his congregation, that we, by his grace, shall, with all
+diligence, continually apply our whole power, substance, and our very
+lives, to maintain, set forward, and establish, the most blessed word of
+God and his congregation; and shall labour, by all possible means, to have
+faithful ministers, truly and purely to minister Christ's gospel and
+sacraments to the people: we shall maintain them, nourish them, and defend
+them, the whole congregation of Christ, and every member thereof, by our
+whole power, and at the hazard of our {55} lives, against Satan, and all
+wicked power, who may intend tyranny and trouble against the said
+congregation: unto which holy word and congregation we do join ourselves;
+and we forsake and renounce the congregation of Satan, with all the
+superstitions, abomination, and idolatry thereof; and moreover shall
+declare ourselves manifestly enemies thereto, by this faithful promise
+before God, testified to this congregation by our subscriptions.--At
+Edinburgh, the third of December, 1557."--Hume adds; "Had the subscribers
+of this zealous league been content only to demand a toleration of the new
+opinions, however incompatible their pretensions might have been with the
+policy of the church of Rome, they would have had the praise of opposing
+tyrannical laws enacted to support an establishment prejudicial to civil
+society: but, it is plain, that they carried their views much farther; and
+their practice immediately discovered the spirit by which they were
+actuated. Supported by the authority, {56} which they thought belonged to
+them as the congregation of the Lord, they ordained, that prayers in the
+vulgar tongue should be used in all the parish churches of the kingdom;
+and, that preaching and the interpretation of the scriptures should be
+practised in private houses, till God should move the prince to grant
+public preaching by faithful and true ministers. Such bonds of association
+are always the forerunners of rebellion; and this violent invasion of the
+established religion was the actual commencement of it[26]."
+
+Whatever the catholic zeal may have produced, nothing can exceed the
+insolence and seditious spirit of the reformers. Knox's usual appellation
+of the queen of Scotland, the unfortunate Mary, was _Jezebel_. "The
+political principles of that man, which he communicated {57} to his
+brethren, were as full of sedition as his theological were of rage and
+bigotry[27]." Was there no treason, was there no regicide doctrine in the
+following brutal speech, which he addressed to her? "Samuel feared not to
+slay Agag, the fat and delicate king of Amalek, whom king Saul had saved:
+neither spared Elias Jezebel's false prophets, and Baal's priests. Phineas
+was no magistrate, yet feared he not to strike Cozbi and Zimri. And so,
+madam, your grace may see, that others than chief magistrates may lawfully
+inflict punishment on such crimes as are condemned by the law of God[27]."
+
+Is it not the zeal for proselytism, that daily thins the established church
+of England, and increases the congregations of the innumerable
+denominations of sectaries, which are tolerated in this country, and of
+which each, if it could, would make its own universal? Even in private and
+temperate characters, a conformity of {58} soul is one of the bases of
+friendship. The desire of impressing our sentiments and opinions upon the
+minds of those we love is the source of intercourse; we should be dumb
+without it. It is not wonderful, that this spring of the social system
+should extend to the principles of religion; and to say, that a Christian
+is zealous to make a Pagan a Christian is to bestow the highest praise upon
+him. If the reformed missionaries deserve this praise, it cannot be refused
+to the Jesuits. Nothing, in fact, can be more laudable than such a zeal,
+and all that can be objected to it is foreign to its real nature. The
+treasons and crimes, which have been imputed to the Jesuits, Hume himself
+has shown were falsely charged to them. Vice is not inherent in any
+profession of faith; it is inherent in the corrupted nature of man. Compare
+a Knox with a Bordaloue, a Prynne with a Beauregard or a Bossuet, and we
+shall be blind if we do not perceive the difference between the zeal which
+actuates the Christian, and that which leads to treason and to crime. {59}
+
+Hume's other objection to the Jesuits was, "their cultivation of learning
+for the nourishment of superstition." Now we very well know how far his
+idea of superstition extended, and that it did not fall short of the whole
+system of revealed religion. It is not necessary to dwell long upon this
+objection. The superstition which is injurious to mankind, must be the
+offspring of ignorance; and, no one denies, that ignorance and superstition
+were very prevalent in the dark ages of the world, and even long after the
+revival of letters; no one denies, that weak and illiterate minds, of
+whatever persuasion, are yet prone to it. What is meant by the superstition
+_nourished by learning_ can only be the impression of mysteries, which the
+understanding, however puzzled, finds sufficient grounds to entertain, and
+on which to build hopes of an immaterial and immortal connexion with the
+Supreme Being. This kind of superstition, or rather this religious
+impression, has ever been cherished by the noblest minds, and forms a
+prominent part of the character of learned {60} men of all persuasions.
+Attached, myself, to the church of England, it is, nevertheless, clear to
+me, that the Reformation has generated the most absurd superstitions; and I
+cannot conceive that there is a man, of unbiassed mind and good sense, who
+would not rather embrace all that has been retrenched from the catholic
+creed, than adopt the spurious abominations and blasphemies which, every
+where, under the screen of toleration, disgrace the world. But I am not
+here entering into a defence of the Roman church, or into a derision of the
+vagaries which have sprung from imaginary rationality, or misapplied
+enthusiasm; my only purpose was to speak of Hume's authority; and I shall
+quit the subject of superstition to turn to that of casuistry, to which he
+also alludes.
+
+And here it is that the deadliest blow is aimed against the Jesuits. If
+their system of morality makes virtues of "prevarication, perjury, and
+every crime, when it serves _ghostly_ purposes," the reproach is fatal. On
+this head, the writer {61} of the pamphlet gives us a string of casuists,
+to confound the order at once. Desirous either of clearing away or
+substantiating this charge, and recollecting the remark of Voltaire, which
+I have already cited, that "the extravagant notions of a few Spanish and
+Flemish Jesuits were _artfully_ ascribed _to the whole society_," I
+inquired more particularly into the character and objects of the casuists
+of the order; and, the more I reflected, the more I was convinced of the
+malignity of the adversaries of the society, on whom the charge might well
+be turned, changing Hume's derisive epithet of _ghostly_ into two other
+qualifying words, _viz._ _rebellious_ and _revolutionary_; for who will
+deny that _prevarication_, _perjury_, and _every crime_, have been resorted
+to, and justified for rebellious and revolutionary purposes?
+
+In such a number of casuistical writers, it may be imagined, that some have
+erred. The Jesuits never wished to defend them. It may be presumed, that
+the number of errors was not great, {62} since their enemies found it
+necessary to commit so many falsifications to make up the volume of
+ASSERTIONS. In many instances, the author of that book attributes to the
+casuist, opinions which he only cites to refute. In moral theology the
+Jesuits had two rules, from which few of them ever deviated; one was, to
+follow the opinions which were most _common_; the other, never to defend an
+opinion when prohibited or condemned by the holy see. Some of their
+casuists taught doctrines, which, in their time, were the most usual in
+schools, but which were afterwards condemned or prohibited at Rome. Their
+enemies imputed these doctrines to them as crimes. The Dominican and
+Franciscan casuists might have been equally charged; but, as Voltaire
+observed, it would not have _answered the purpose_.
+
+The chief casuists, collected to _answer the purpose_ in the new conspiracy
+against the Jesuits, are the following: Lamy, Moya, Bauny, Berruyer,
+Casnedi, and Benzi. Since, next to the _Monita Secreta_, that infamous
+forgery so {63} completely exposed in the subsequent Letters, the writer of
+the pamphlet relies on the immoral doctrines to be found in the writings of
+these priests, let us see on what foundation they stand. I shall first
+observe, that the _Apology for the Casuists_, said to be published by the
+Jesuits, so far from being avowed as a work of their own, was disavowed by
+the superiors of the order, and condemned by the pope and many prelates. It
+was written by Pere Pirot, who seemed, in a manner, determined to justify
+Pascal's Satires, by defending certain opinions, in spite of their having
+been condemned, as D'Avrigny informs us, in his _Memoires Chronologiques et
+Dogmatiques pour servir a l'Histoire Ecclesiastique depuis 1600 jusqu'en
+1716, &c._[28] The author laments the hard fate of religious societies, of
+which he observes, _que toute faute personelle dans le jugement du public
+devient une faute generale, et les enfans portent l'iniquite de leurs peres
+jusqu'a la troisieme et la quatrieme generation_.
+
+{64}
+
+The _Course of Theology_, by LAMY, is classed with the _Apology_, as
+justifying murder, &c. This author was a Neapolitan, whose name was AMICI,
+and the work, from which the charge in question is extracted, consists of
+nine volumes folio! The proposition attributed to him, to blacken him as a
+Jesuit, was not his, nor ever adopted by him. It had been taught, long
+before, by the celebrated casuist Navarre, and others totally unconnected
+with the Jesuits. Amici mentions it, and alleges the reasons which had been
+given in support of it, but adds, _nolumus a nobis (haec) ita sint dicta ut
+communi sententiae adversentur, sed tantum disputandi gratia proposita_. The
+proposition was omitted altogether in the second edition of his work, and,
+being formally condemned by Alexander VII, in 1665, was never after
+defended by any catholic divine.
+
+MOYA seems to have been a very virtuous man, though, perhaps, rather
+indiscreet in his zeal for the credit of his society. The facts are {65}
+these: a book had been published by one Gregory Esclapey, reproaching the
+Jesuits with teaching many erroneous doctrines. To this work Moya published
+an answer, under the name of Guimenius, in which he professedly abstains
+from all inquiry into the merits of the doctrines; but, being imputed to
+the Jesuits by their adversary, he undertakes to show, that they were not
+responsible for them, as they did not originate with them, having been
+taught by the older divines, previous to the existence of the order. The
+doctrines were condemned at Rome in 1666, and Moya, in the third edition of
+his work, proves the justice of the condemnation, by entering into a
+refutation of them.
+
+BAUNY lived at the same time. He was the intimate friend and confidant of
+the famous cardinal de la Rochefoucault, archbishop of Sens, and reformer
+of the Benedictines. He was afterwards a zealous missionary in Bretagne,
+under the bishop of St. Pol de Leon. He died of his missionary labours. If
+he treated other {66} with lenity, it is certain he did not spare himself.
+His "Somme des Peches" was written, as he informs us, by the positive order
+of a bishop, probably the bishop of St. Pol, and it was published by order
+of the bishop, unaccompanied by the sanction or approbation of any Jesuit;
+nor was it used in their schools, consequently, its doctrines are nowise
+attributable to the society. It contains several relaxed propositions,
+deservedly censured by the French clergy in 1642.
+
+BERRUYER is stated by the pamphlet-writer to have been convicted of
+blasphemy, and condemned by Benedict XIII and Clement XIII. This is not
+true; he never was convicted of blasphemy. He was not a casuist. His
+"Histoire da Peuple de Dieu" was censured and condemned by Benedict XIV and
+Clement XIII. He was a man of much erudition, and master of an agreeable
+and graceful style, but fond of extraordinary opinions. The chief faults
+imputed to him are, that he {67} disparages the simplicity and majesty of
+the inspired books, by rhetorical tropes and figures, and modern
+phraseology; and that he discourses on the humanity of the Redeemer in a
+manner that seems to favour the ancient heresy of the Nestorians. The
+French Jesuits disavowed the work, and submitted unanimously to the
+condemnation of it. It is rather surprising, that this author should have
+been cited among the casuists by the writer of the pamphlet, who, if he had
+read the imputed blasphemy, would have found in it something of protestant
+principles, pushed even beyond the reform adopted by our church, refusing
+the Virgin Mary the title to her being mother of our Saviour in his divine
+nature. But what does this signify? It is enough to have heard that the
+book was condemned by a pope, no matter which; it could not have been
+condemned without being blasphemous; and who could suspect, that a Jesuit
+had any correspondent sentiment with protestants? {68}
+
+CASNEDI was of a noble and ancient Milanese family; a man of great
+learning, zeal, and piety. He maintained, that the moral merit or demerit
+of an action depended upon the belief and intention of the agent. A very
+simple and incontrovertible proposition; but, being expressed in ardent
+terms, not unlike those used by the fanatical orators of the present day,
+it makes a flaming show among the articles of impeachment now instituted
+against the whole society of Jesus.
+
+BENZI is represented in several French and Italian libels in the foul
+colours copied by the writer of the pamphlet. He was a respectable and much
+injured man. He was universally revered in Venice, where he was a
+distinguished director and preacher. Far from teaching the horrors imputed
+to him, he merely gave an opinion, in writing, on being consulted, whether
+certain trespasses were to be considered as cases _reserved_ or _not
+reserved_. It was merely a _questio juris_, a technical opinion, and not a
+{69} decision on the subject matter. Malice and calumny did the rest.
+
+This, I believe, is the _triumphant_ list of casuists drawn up, rank and
+file, to confront and confound the whole society to which they are said to
+have belonged. The philosopher Bayle tells us, that the writers in those
+days "had only to publish boldly whatever they chose against the Jesuits,
+they might be certain of convincing an infinite number of people. The
+prejudice against them had become so general, that, let them bring forward
+what proofs they might, it was not possible for them to undeceive the
+world." And he adds; "But I cannot imagine how the rules of morality suffer
+such an abuse of public prejudice[29]." Had he lived till now, he would
+have seen, that there are heads of the nineteenth century which _can
+imagine_ it very virtuous to excite, foment, and augment prejudice on the
+same subject, in order {70} to gratify the vanity of writing, or the
+unfounded spleen of a less relenting philosophy than his own.
+
+The great sources of _such historical proofs_ as have been amassed by the
+new conspiracy against the Jesuits being proved to be impure and unworthy
+of credit, it becomes as unnecessary as it is disgusting to wade through
+the mud and filth of the mass of obscure pamphlets referred to by the
+writer of the pamphlet, such as "Prynne's hidden Works of Darkness," and
+"Rome's Masterpiece," "Remarks of a Portugueze," "A true and certain
+Relation of sundry Machinations and Plots of the Jesuits," "The Anatomy of
+Popish Tyranny," "Recit des desseins les plus Secrets des Jesuites,"
+"Jesuites Marchands," "Recueil des Proces contre les Jesuites," "Idee
+generale des Vices," &c. &c. There is, however, one more of the catalogue,
+which I will notice, to prove still farther the dishonesty of the means
+taken by the new conspirators to blacken the Jesuits; it is {71} "Le Franc
+Discours, or the Memorial presented to Henry IV against them." Did it not
+become an inquirer into the truth of the accusations, to state the answer
+of Henry IV to the accusers of the Jesuits? An answer which, in itself
+alone, is enough to vindicate the society, and unveil the immense and
+complicated engine so long since put in motion for its destruction; and so
+irresistibly and successfully employed, in the course of time, by the
+framers of it. Pius VII is not the first, who has recalled the Jesuits; the
+great and good Henry IV recalled them, after they had been banished from
+his kingdom by the machinations of their enemies. Then it was, that he was
+memorialed; that remonstrance upon remonstrance was laid before him: but
+Henry was not easily imposed upon by passionate asseverations, nor made the
+dupe of envious persecutions. On the parliament delaying to give effect to
+his edict for the re-establishment of the Jesuits, he informed them, that
+he was determined to be obeyed; but he admitted a deputation of some of
+their members, with {72} their first president, Harlay, at their head, who
+went to the palace to state anew their remonstrances. Dupleix, a French
+historian, says, that Harlay made a long harangue to the king, which "was
+rather an invective, filled with all the abuse and outrage in the pleadings
+of Pasquier and Arnaud; in the Catechism of Pasquier, and in the work
+entitled _Franc Avis_, against the society, than the speech of a
+statesman[30]." Henry's reply lies at this moment before me on the table,
+and, I think, I should be wanting to the cause of truth and justice, if I
+neglected to insert it here. It is rather long for a quotation, but it
+cannot be tedious, and I am certain, that every unprejudiced reader will be
+gratified with the perusal of it.
+
+    "It is very kind, it is very kind of you to be so careful of my person
+    and my kingdom. I know your meaning perfectly; but you do not know
+    mine. You have started difficulties, to {73} your thinking, very great
+    and considerable, and little know, that I have thought on and
+    considered them all these eight or nine years past; and that the best
+    resolutions for the time to come are taken from reflections on things
+    past, which I am acquainted with better than any person whatever. You
+    set up for mighty statesmen, and understand state affairs no more than
+    I do the drawing the report of a cause. As to the affair of Poissy[31]
+    things would have gone much better for the catholics, if all of you had
+    acted your part as well as a Jesuit or two, who, very luckily, happened
+    to be there. There clearly appeared, not the ambition, but the
+    abilities of the Jesuits; and I do not understand how you can make
+    those ambitious, who refuse dignities and prelacies, and make a vow to
+    God never to aspire to any preferment; and, who seek nothing in this
+    world besides serving all that are willing to employ them, without any
+    {74} view of interest or recompence. If the name of Jesuit displease
+    you, why not find fault with those, who stile themselves religious of
+    the Trinity; why not say, that your daughters are as much religious as
+    the nuns, called here daughters of God[32]; and that you are as much of
+    my order of the Holy Ghost as my knights and myself? For my part, I
+    would as soon, or rather, be called Jesuit, than Augustinian or
+    Dominican. As to the churchmen, who except against them, ignorance has
+    always borne a grudge to learning; and I observed, when I began to
+    speak of re-establishing the Jesuits, that two sorts of persons opposed
+    this design; those of the pretended reformed religion, and churchmen of
+    irregular conduct, which has gained them still greater credit and
+    reputation. If the Sorbonne you talk of has condemned them, it was,
+    quite like you, without knowing them; and, if the old Sorbonne would
+    not own them out of jealousy, the new Sorbonne is very proud of, and
+    esteems them; if {75} they were not fixed in France before, God has
+    reserved for me the honour, which indeed I esteem a favour, of settling
+    them; and, if they were only provisionally admitted heretofore, they
+    shall henceforward have a permanent settlement, both by edict and
+    arret. The will of my predecessors kept them here, mine shall establish
+    them. The university opposed them, either because they excelled others
+    (witness the vast concourse of scholars to their colleges), or because
+    they were not incorporated in the university, which will not be refused
+    when I order it; and when I shall see that they stand in need of being
+    better regulated. You say, that the greatest men of your parliament
+    have learned nothing from them: if the oldest are the most learned, you
+    are certainly right; they had ended their studies before the Jesuits
+    had opened their schools. Other parliaments, I am credibly informed, do
+    not say so; nor, indeed, does all yours. They teach better than others;
+    that is the true reason why, since their absence, your University is
+    quite abandoned, and students {76} flock after these masters to Douay,
+    and other places, within and without my kingdom. You say, they engage
+    the brightest geniuses, they examine and pick out the best for their
+    society: I commend them for it. When I raise troops, I chuse those who
+    are likely to turn out the best soldiers. Were there no room for favour
+    amongst you, would you admit any, but what were worthy of being
+    members, and of having a seat in your parliament? I heartily wish you
+    received such only as are quite deserving, and that virtue were always
+    the badge and distinctive mark in posts of honour. If the Jesuits
+    served the public with ignorant masters and preachers, you would
+    despise them; and now, that they employ in your service men of wit and
+    capacity, you are not pleased. As to the great estates, you say, they
+    possessed, it is all calumny and imposture; and I very well know, by
+    the account of the estates re-annexed to the crown, that seven or eight
+    masters could not be maintained at Bourges and Lyons; whereas, when the
+    Jesuits were there, they were thirty or forty {77} in number. But
+    should there be any difficulty in this respect, I have provided against
+    it in my edict. To call them a _factious society_, for being concerned
+    in the _league_, is a reproach that falls only on the times. They
+    thought they did well: many others were concerned, with whom they were
+    mistaken and deluded; and they own now, that they have found my
+    intentions quite contrary to what they had preconceived. But, I am
+    inclined to believe, they acted with less malice than others, and that
+    the same disposition, with the favours they receive from me, will make
+    them as affectionate to me, even more so, than they ever were to the
+    _league_. It is objected, they get footing in cities and towns by all
+    means they can: so do others: I myself got into my kingdom as well as I
+    could. It must be owned, that, with their wonderful patience and
+    regular way of life, they may compass what they will; and _their great
+    care not to change or alter any thing in their institute will be the
+    cause of their stability and long continuance_. The vow of obedience
+    they make {78} to the pope will not subject them more to his will, than
+    the oath of allegiance they have taken to me will bind them not to
+    undertake any thing against their natural sovereign. But their vow does
+    not extend to every thing, as is vainly pretended; they only make a vow
+    of obeying the pope, when he is pleased to send them to labour for the
+    encouragement of infidels; and, in fact, the Indies are converted by
+    them. As to the opinion of the pope, I know he esteems them greatly; so
+    do I. But you do not tell me, that the pope was upon the point of
+    seizing cardinal Bellarmine's Works, at Rome, for not allowing him as
+    great an extent of jurisdiction as other divines do: and you studiously
+    conceal what the Jesuits have lately maintained, that, though the pope
+    could not err, Clement might be mistaken. Upon the whole, I am
+    persuaded, that they say no more than others of the papal authority;
+    and that, if opinions are to be tried, you must quarrel with those of
+    the catholic church. It is said, that the king of Spain employs
+    Jesuits; I tell you, that I am {79} determined to do the same; why
+    should France fare worse than Spain? Since all the world judges them
+    useful to the public, let me tell you, I think them necessary to my
+    kingdom. As to the doctrine, imputed to them, of withdrawing churchmen
+    from obedience to sovereigns, or teaching subjects to attempt on their
+    lives, it is proper to see, on one side, what they say, and, on the
+    other, what they teach their scholars. What convinces me there is no
+    such thing is, that, for these thirty years past, that they have taught
+    in France, above fifty thousand scholars have been brought up in their
+    colleges, have conversed and lived with them, and not one has yet been
+    found, in that vast number, who pretends to have heard any such
+    discourse among them, or any thing coming up to the doctrine with which
+    they are reproached. What is more, ask protestant ministers, that have
+    lived and studied under them, how the Jesuits live: to be sure, they
+    will not spare them, were it only to justify their leaving the society.
+    I know the question has been put to many, and nothing {80} could ever
+    be got from them, but that their conduct and morals were without
+    exception. Barriere was not encouraged, as you pretend, by any Jesuit.
+    The first notice of that attempt I had from a Jesuit: another told him,
+    he would be damned if he dared to go upon any such design. Chatel never
+    accused them, nor could any torments extort any charge against Varade,
+    or any other Jesuit. If any one had been accused, how came you to spare
+    him? The other Jesuit, that was seized, was taken up on account of some
+    printed papers found in his chamber. After all, though a Jesuit had
+    done that foul deed, which I am resolved to forget, must all the
+    Jesuits suffer, must all the apostles be banished for one Judas? At
+    that time God was pleased to humble and to save me, for which I give
+    him thanks: he teaches me to forgive all offences; and I have done it,
+    freely and willingly, for his sake. I pray daily for my enemies; so far
+    am I from remembering what is past, as you advise me to do, not very
+    like good Christians, for which I do not thank you. {81} The Jesuits
+    are natives of my kingdom, and born my subjects; I will not harbour any
+    suspicion against those whom their birth has placed under my
+    government; and, if there should be any danger of their communicating
+    my secrets to the enemies of France, I will take care to let them know
+    only what I think fit. Let me manage this affair; I have gone through
+    many others much more difficult: and now I charge you to think of
+    nothing farther, than doing what I bid and command you to do."
+
+With such a speech in existence, is it not a disgrace to any man to cite
+against the society the remonstrance that gave occasion to it? I have done,
+then, with this writer's impure and disgraceful authorities; and I should
+here proceed immediately to the respectable, the noble, the brilliant list
+of authorities in favour of the Jesuits, but that I feel it proper
+previously to notice another attack upon them, from a very unexpected
+quarter, from one whom we are almost compelled to consider as an unbiassed
+{82} assailant, since (besides being a gentleman and a member of the
+legislature) he does, in the very act of aiming the blow which he gives,
+profess the highest admiration, respect, and regard for them. "I am ready
+to admit," says sir John Hippisley, "the merit of that body of catholics,
+as far as they are exercised in the secular walk of philosophical and
+classical instruction; their schools and seminaries have been the most
+celebrated," &c. Again; "It pains me to speak, in these terms, of a
+community, comprehending many highly respected ecclesiastics, and, in the
+bosom of which, many of my valuable friends have received their education,"
+&c. But sir John's "sense of duty overcomes his individual
+partialities[33]."
+
+In consistency with these professions, sir John seems desirous of confining
+his objections to some particulars; but he was unable to conceal how
+willing he is to lay his axe to the tree, root {83} and branch; for he
+inserts a note to his speech, in which, not satisfied with protestant
+objections, he luxuriates in the citation of the "burning of more than
+fifty publications of Jesuit authors by _the common hangman_;" in the
+naming of the authors, whose books were burned; and in recording the very
+terms of the sentence: _seront laceres et brules, dans la cour du palais,
+par l'executeur de la haute justice_ (the high office translated by sir
+John _common hangman_) _comme seditieux, destructifs de toute principe de
+la morale Chretienne, enseignant une doctrine meurtriere et abominable,
+non-seulement contre la surete de la vie des citoyens, mais meme contre
+celle des personnes sacrees des souverains_. To which is added, a reference
+to a _Portuguese_ work, for a complete list of the books burned. So much
+for sir John's _sorrow_ in speaking, in the milder terms of his harangue,
+on his particular objections, and for _the preference_ he would have given
+to having his statement _reserved_ for the consideration of a _select
+committee_. The reader, long before he arrives at this {84} preference of
+secret publicity, will have learned, from good authority, how to appreciate
+both the sentence and the judges that pronounced it; which sir John, by his
+recording it, appears not to have been able to do, in spite of _the number
+of his friends_, to whom he might have applied for information of the
+spirit that inflamed the parliament of Paris. But let us see the particular
+objections made by Sir John Hippisley. Sir John states, that the general of
+the order being a Russian, the acknowledgment of him by Jesuits in other
+states is an instance of dependence upon foreign jurisdiction. From this
+objection, it is to be presumed, that sir John credits the complete
+despotism, and other horrors, which have been attributed to the character
+of the general, as well as the prostitution of reason and virtue in all the
+members of the order, in consequence of the vow of obedience. And he
+evidently apprehends, that, if we go to war with Russia, the constitution
+of Great Britain will be endangered by the plots of Jesuits in this
+country! "We are," says he, "at this hour, {85} on terms of amity with
+Russia; within how short a period was it otherwise?" In neither country is
+catholicism the established religion, yet sir John sees, that Jesuits may
+busy themselves so foully with Greeks and Lutherans, that the pope will be
+brought in. The objection is really absurd; but, on the _despotism_ of the
+general, and the _blind_ obedience of the companions of the order, I shall
+make some remarks, when I consider the institute itself; at present, I
+shall only repeat, that these are calumnies to which no man would be a
+dupe, who had ever cast his eye over the pages of that almost inspired body
+of religious and moral statutes. The general, as well as the members of the
+community, is bound by those laws. A general congregation may be assembled,
+without his consent, and in defiance of him, to make laws against him: and
+"blind obedience is a sacrifice of passion, not of reason; Jesuits are to
+obey blindly, only when they see clearly, that they may do so without a
+crime, nay, without the slightest fault." The obedience which all
+religious, as well as Jesuits, paid to their chief {86} superior, who
+generally resided at Rome, was well understood to relate merely to their
+professional duties. It was first made an object of jealousy, exclusively
+with regard to the Jesuits, at the time that the parliaments were studying
+every mode of making them odious; and, before that time, the native country
+of their general was a matter of indifference. The native country of the
+pope was never alleged as a motive for rejecting his authority. The
+obedience of the Jesuits was voluntary; and they knew, from their
+institute, that it never could supersede the duty which they owed to the
+government under which they lived. Can sir John adduce a single instance of
+a Jesuit's betraying the country, or the government, which protected him?
+The first superiors of the French Jesuits were Spaniards and Italians. The
+superior of the Venetian Jesuits, during the famous contest between that
+state and Paul V, was a Frenchman.
+
+In friendly consideration for the instructors of his numerous valuable
+friends, sir John informs {87} the House of Commons, that, though the
+empress of Russia countenanced the re-organization of the society within
+her dominions, "it was in a degraded state, to suit the views of her
+policy;" and, in a note, he informs the world at large, that "a
+correspondent of great consideration observed, that the empress was well
+pleased with the opportunity of snapping her fingers (_narguer_) at the
+courts of Versailles and Madrid, and showing them and the world at large,
+that she could render the institution tractable by her superior authority
+and management; that is, that she could tame wild beasts, which _they_ were
+forced to destroy[34]." It is not for me to {88} divine by what means sir
+John, or his correspondent, obtained such possession of the secrets of
+Catherine's mind, as to be able to decide, in the face of the world, that
+her conduct, in saving the Jesuits, was guided by petty motives of private
+interest, and especially the secret desire _de narguer_, in plain English
+to jeer and jibe, to fleer and flout, the French and Spanish courts; but,
+if so, it evidently supposes some previous cause of dissatisfaction with
+those courts. What that cause was it is for sir John or his correspondent
+to state: to the generality of men, I believe, it remains a mystery. I am
+ignorant of any such cause, and, being in the class of ordinary observers,
+I ascribe the conduct of the empress to the more generous motives, which
+she and her two successors have avowed to the world. These are, the duty of
+providing for their catholic subjects suitable ministers and teachers;
+their knowledge {89} that the Jesuits of White Russia are such; their
+abhorrence of the injustice, which would strip them of their property, of
+their civil state and profession, and abolish their canonical existence,
+without any proof of crime or misdemeanour; and, finally, their royal word
+and faith pledged to maintain inviolably the _status quo_ of the catholic
+religion and its ministers, as settled in the _pacta conventa_ of the
+cession of White Russia to their dominion[35]. These motives {90} have
+something in them honourable, generous, and dignified. I revere the
+empress, who, acting upon them, could at once read a lesson of justice to
+other monarchs, and rescue from destruction a remnant of the persecuted
+society. Instead of attributing to her the paltry spirit _de narguer_, I
+will, with sir John's permission, apply to her the praise which Cicero
+addressed to Caesar, in his oration for Marcellus: "Nobilissimam familiam,
+jam ad paucos redactam, pene ab interitu vindicasti!" Sir John will not
+refuse her this compliment, when he discovers the extraordinary inaccuracy
+into which he has been betrayed by his informer. He asserts[36], that
+Catherine "secured the tractability of these {91} restless men by the _sine
+qua non_ of the residence of their general, _a subject_, within the state."
+It is true, that their general could not conveniently reside in any other
+state; but my information emboldens me to affirm, that no restraint
+whatever was laid upon the Jesuits, in the election of their generals; that
+they have already elected five in Russia, all of whom have been
+_foreigners_. The three first were Poles, of whom one, named by sir John,
+F. Carew, was of British extraction. Their late general, Gruber, was an
+Austrian; the present superior is a Prussian, and is actually expected at
+Rome.
+
+In a detail of restrictions he mentions the superintendence of the
+seminaries being consigned to the ministry of public inspection, and
+asserts, that priests of the _Greek_ national church are directed to attend
+the Jesuit colleges, to instruct the pupils of the Greek communion in
+religion. I am unacquainted with the weight of authority to be allowed to
+sir John's correspondent; but, certainly, the result of my inquiries
+differs {92} widely from the information communicated by him. The Jesuits
+have, ever since their establishment in Russia, been treated with
+unsuspecting liberality. The integrity of their institute has been
+scrupulously maintained, and the authority given to the catholic archbishop
+of Mohilow has ever been exactly confined within the limits prescribed by
+the council of Trent. By a law of the present emperor, all colleges were
+subjected to the control of the university of Petersburgh. The Jesuits,
+feeling the inconvenience of this, soon had their own chief college of
+Polosk erected into a university, by which they became exempted from the
+temporary control. They have an establishment at Petersburgh, called the
+"College of Nobles," into which young noblemen only are admitted as
+pensioners, and these are educated in the regular collegiate discipline,
+whatever be their religion. They attend at divine service, and at public
+catechisms and instructions. The majority of them are of the national
+religion, and, if their parents or they themselves desire it, the {93}
+superior of the Jesuits permits a priest of the Greek church to come to the
+college on Sunday, where he explains the national catechism to them in a
+private room. Beyond this he has nothing to do in the house. This practice
+may be known at court, but it was neither enjoined nor recommended by the
+court. This is the account I have collected of the Jesuits in Russia, and,
+I am persuaded, that they are not more restricted than the catholics in
+general, whom sir John appears to attack through the Jesuits, for in this
+long note (page 36), which seemed exclusively designed for the exposure of
+their Russian degradation, he slides unexpectedly into an exposure of "the
+restrictions, which attach _generally_ upon the exercise of the Roman
+catholic discipline." In this I have here no part to take, the general
+question has passed through abler hands than mine; my subject confines me
+to the society of the Jesuits, and in so doing calls upon me to notice the
+advertisement prefixed to sir John Hippisley's Speech. In that
+advertisement we find it to be sir John's opinion, {94} that the bull of
+Pius VII, by which the order of Jesuits is restored, should not be
+published without the rescript of Clement XIV, by which it was suppressed,
+as a pendant; and, in a style of triumphant irony, he leaves it to the
+consideration of an author favourable to the society[37], on comparing the
+pontifical acts, "whether he can advantageously take the field against the
+memorable rescript of Ganganelli, and enter the lists with the living
+writers _of his own communion_, who espouse that deliberate pontifical act;
+for," says he, "it does not appear, that the denunciation pronounced by the
+bull of Pius VII has extinguished the ardour of the opponents of the
+constitution, which he has so solemnly re-embodied. Two publications on the
+subject have issued from the French press, since the date of this bull,
+namely, _Du Pape et des Jesuites_, and, _Les Jesuites tels qu'ils ont ete
+dans l'Ordre Politique, Religieux, et Moral_. {95} The first is ascribed to
+the pen of a _Pere de l'Oratoire_, the other announced as the work of _M.
+S***, Ancien Magistrat_. A perusal of these tracts," continues sir John,
+"and especially the brief of Pius VII, will lead to the discovery, whether
+the society have been most successfully attacked or defended by the French
+writers or by Mr. Plowden."
+
+The Jesuits are more obliged to sir John for this position of the subject
+than, I believe, he meant they should be. I cannot judge of Mr. Plowden's
+success, not having seen his publication, but I think and hope to find it
+complete, from sir John's own statement in this advertisement. I am also
+unacquainted with the two _overpowering_ French pamphlets alluded to; but
+their titles and authors are enough to convince me, that the new conspiracy
+against the Jesuits extends to France, that I am answering the pamphlets
+without seeing them, and that they are nothing more than the _crambe
+repetita_, the dying echoes, of the Jansenists, {96} parliamentarians, and
+jacobins. Can sir John have read the accounts, to be found in various
+authors, of the persecution of the Jesuits, and not suspect the very
+appellations of _Father of the Oratory_, and _Ancient Magistrate_? If he
+does me the honour to read this sketch, he will, I hope, know what value to
+set upon them. But what surprises me most is, that he does not seem to be
+aware, that the Jesuits had always enemies _in their own communion_, for,
+by underlining these words, he shows, that he thinks it a strong proof of
+guilt when Roman catholics espouse the suppression of the order. A moment's
+reflection will bring to his mind, that the most powerful of the ancient
+conspiracy against the Jesuits were, at least, professed catholics; the
+Arnauds, the Pasquiers, the Monclars, the Chalotais; not to mention the
+D'Alemberts, Diderots, Condorcets, who, indeed, though educated catholics,
+were professed atheists or deists. The same may be said of Vatel, and some
+others cited by sir John. Vatel was a fanatical deist; Dupin a notorious
+Jansenist; Pereira a devoted creature {97} of Pombal. Envious men, and
+philosophers, do not spare others because they are of the same religious
+communion. If this motive prevailed, much sparring and abuse would be saved
+among protestants as well as among catholics. But, to come to the principal
+point of view, in which sir John's advertisement has happily placed the
+cause of the Jesuits.
+
+History shows us, that, however extensive and complete the power of the
+popes may have been in former remote periods, they had a very difficult
+part to sustain in later times, and that they were often obliged to court
+the catholic monarchs, and to yield, that they might not be forced[38].
+This was peculiarly the case with Clement XIV, whose philosophical name,
+Ganganelli, sir John significantly shoots at us through the rifle of
+_Italics_, and it was his {98} avowed policy, even before his elevation to
+the pontificate, that the Jesuits were to be sacrificed, in spite of their
+innocence, in spite of their religious and moral virtues, in spite of his
+own attachment and approbation, to the necessity of preserving the favour
+of the monarchs of Europe. "Portugal," says he, "will never give up her
+opinion, in which I see other kingdoms that will confirm and support her.
+Kings no longer live unconnected with one another, as formerly; they form
+friendships, and act in concert; so that, if we are unfortunate enough to
+offend one, we may offend all; and, instead of having one enemy to deal
+with, we have all Europe upon us[39]."--"Little minds imagine, that one
+must be displeased with a certain religious society, if one does not
+support them in defiance of kings. But, besides that resisting the
+potentates would only multiply storms for them, one would not, through
+partiality to them, embroil oneself with all the catholic princes[40]."
+This is pretty plain {99} language, but what follows is in more direct
+terms, and, I think, is a decisive proof of the motives, which influenced
+the writer in the suppression of the Jesuits, when the tiara was placed
+upon his head: "Now it is, that we must make use of that wisdom of the
+serpent which Jesus Christ recommends to his apostles. It is no doubt
+grievous, that a religious brotherhood intended for colleges, seminaries,
+and missions, and who have written much on the truths of religion, should
+be deserted at a time when incredulity has broken loose with fury against
+the religious orders; but the question to be decided before God is, whether
+it is better to contend with the sovereigns than to give up a religious
+society. For my part, I think, on seeing the storm that gathers howling
+from all quarters, and which we perceive already over our heads, that it is
+right for us to act ourselves without waiting, and to sacrifice what is
+most agreeable rather than incur the anger of the sovereigns, which we
+cannot too much dread. Let our holy father, {100} and his secretary of
+state, love the Jesuits sincerely, I subscribe with all my heart to the
+attachment they have for the society; but I shall always say,
+notwithstanding my veneration for St. Ignatius, and the esteem in which his
+disciples are held, that it is very dangerous, nay, very rash, to, support
+the Jesuits in the present circumstances[41]." These sentiments of cardinal
+Ganganelli would not serve well for a pendant to the brief of Clement XIV,
+yet, for the sake of truth and justice, they should be always printed
+together, and go down side by side to posterity. Where now is "the
+formidable array of pontiffs," which show that Ganganelli "is not the
+solitary impugner," among popes, of the order of Jesuits? Ganganelli tells
+you, that they were tossed on a stormy sea, where they were obliged to
+manage their sails dexterously, that they might not sink themselves; and,
+in the very rescript which sir John has hung by the side of Pius VII's bull
+{101} in his appendix, he declares, that it blew so hard from the four
+quarters, France, Spain, Portugal and Sicily (see page 24), that he was
+under the necessity of throwing the Jesuits overboard: "Our dear sons in
+Jesus Christ," says he, "having made known their _demands_ and _wills_ in
+this matter."
+
+Clement XIV vainly flattered himself, that, by making ample concessions to
+the importunity of the combined ministers, by persecuting the Jesuits in
+detail, contrary to his own conviction, he should, in the end, escape the
+necessity of crushing them altogether. It was the policy of Pontius Pilate.
+His whole reign was one series of vexatious treatment; even outrages
+against them. From the first day of his pontificate they were the only
+Christians excluded from access to the common father. His condescension
+only betrayed his weakness, and enhardened the ministerial conspirators.
+When, at length, he found it impossible to resist them, without incurring
+the loss of his states, "he gave sentence, {102} that it should be as they
+required[42]." He resorted to the principle of the high priest, in St.
+John, chap. ii, verse 50, the expediency of which is so clearly announced
+in his Letters[43]. But here three things sorely distressed him: the
+incongruity and injustice of condemning the Jesuits without a trial, which
+he knew the ministers would not permit; the approbation of their institute
+by the council of Trent; and the concurring approbation of the order by
+nearly twenty popes, especially the very recent constitution, or bull, of
+his immediate predecessor, Clement XIII, solemnly published, and received
+by the whole church. The applicants for the destruction of the order
+undertook to remove his scruples.
+
+I am obliged to sir John for drawing my attention to Ganganelli's brief,
+which I might otherwise have passed over without much {103} scrutiny. He is
+of opinion, that it should accompany the bull of the reigning pontiff; but
+some connoisseurs may think, that it will show to more advantage exhibited
+between the just mentioned bull _apostolicum_ of Clement XIII and that of
+Pius VII: it would thus have a pendant on each side, eliciting, by a double
+contrast, all the effects of art. The bull apostolicum formed a principal
+objection to the grand plan of destruction, not easy to be evaded. It was
+so recent, so public, so solemn, so decisive. It was a distinct and
+specific approbation and confirmation of the society of Jesus; it repeated
+the sentiments of all popes from Paul III; it was solicited by hundreds of
+bishops; it was formally communicated to the college of cardinals, and was
+applauded by them all; it was accepted by every catholic bishop; it had
+every character of a formal judgment of the whole catholic church. Clement
+XIV and his advisers dared not to contradict it by another bull; it would
+have been a great scandal. The cardinals could not have concurred in it.
+The inferior, {104} and less authoritative, mode of _brief_, or private
+letter, or rescript, in which it was not usual to consult the cardinals,
+was adopted. In this, the difficulty presented by the apostolicum of
+Clement XIII is overleaped in a short and peremptory way, by an absurd
+declaration of its having been _extorted rather than granted_, without any
+proof, and in defiance of the number of circumstances which demonstrate the
+contrary. As sir John appears to be unacquainted with this famous
+constitution of Clement XIII, published in the beginning of 1765, and as it
+is perhaps the best written official document which Rome has, for many
+years, sent forth, it shall be inserted in the Appendix in its original
+language[44].
+
+The more I consider Ganganelli's rescript, the more am I surprised at the
+pitiful attempts made to lay down something like an apology for injustice,
+and the more am I disgusted with its want of principle. It opens with a
+long narration {105} of the suppression of various small religious
+associations by ancient popes, but it leaves us quite in the dark as to the
+justice or injustice of those several suppressions. It informs us, that
+several complaints had been made, at several times, to several popes, of
+the Jesuits; but it omits to tell us, that those complaints had always been
+either rejected, or refuted, or disregarded, by those several popes, whose
+public acts attest that they were, one and all, friends and supporters of
+the society[45]. The brief then recites the _jus_, or leading maxim, on
+which the whole procedure hinges, and which, in spite of {106} the Roman
+canon, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, solves the pope's first
+difficulty, or scruple, of punishing without trial: it is this; that _the
+slow and fallible method of proceeding before courts of justice must be
+avoided_; that _reliance must be placed_ WHOLLY _on that plenitude of
+power, which popes possess in so eminent a degree, as vicars of Christ upon
+earth, and as sovereign moderators of the Christian republic_; and that
+_regular orders, which they propose to suppress_, ought not to be allowed
+_the faculty of producing any arguments in their defence, or of clearing
+themselves from the heavy accusations brought against them_. These are the
+words of the brief, as given by sir John in the translation of it in the
+Appendix to his Speech; in other words, _the accused may be punished
+without being heard_. This requires no comment; every British heart will
+suggest a just one.
+
+Let us now see how Ganganelli gets over the difficulty arising from the
+approbation of the council of Trent. To the eternal disgrace of {107} this
+brief, then, we find the operative or suppressing clause made to depend
+upon a paltry sophism. Stating the _demands_ and _wishes_ of his dear sons,
+the kings and ministers, with the addition of pressing solicitations from
+some bishops and other persons, Clement, for a salvo to his conscience,
+declares (page 25), "that to choose the wisest course, in an affair of so
+much importance, he determined not to be precipitate, but to take due time
+to _examine attentively_, _weigh carefully_, and _wisely debate_ upon it."
+What was done? "_First of all_," continues the brief, "we proposed to
+examine upon what grounds rested the common opinion, that the institute of
+the clerks of the company of Jesus had been approved and confirmed in a
+special manner by the council of Trent! And we found, that, in the said
+council, nothing more was done, with regard to the said society, than to
+except it from the general decree respecting other orders. The same council
+declared, that _it meant not to make any change or innovation in the
+government of the clerks of the company of Jesus, that_ {108} _they might
+not be hindered from being useful to God and his church, according to the
+intent of the pious institute approved by the holy see_." If the lines in
+italics are not an especial approval and confirmation of the institute,
+then must I confess, that I know not the meaning of the words _approval_
+and _confirmation_. To my understanding they convey a most decided
+approbation and confirmation of the institute. Well, what succeeds the
+_imprimis_? What does the pontiff next examine, weigh, and debate
+attentively, carefully, and wisely? The reader will look in vain for the
+second head of wise deliberation; the actuating assertion immediately
+follows: "actuated by _so many_ and important considerations," &c. &c., and
+_impelled by fear_, for that is the import of the following sentences, "WE
+DO SUPPRESS AND ABOLISH THE SAID COMPANY." The only possible apology, that
+can be made for Clement, in this rescript, is, that he acted, as lawyers
+term it, under duress. After his own avowal, while a cardinal, can any man
+doubt, that he {109} imagined that the intrigues going on in France, Spain,
+Portugal, and Sicily, against the Jesuits, would prove fatal to the power
+of Rome, if the society were protected? The whole of the preamble of his
+rescript consists of the approbation of his predecessors, and the appeals
+of the intriguers of the nations around him against the Jesuits. At last,
+the _Inquisition_[46] of Spain (see page 20), press so strongly, that
+Sixtus V determines to examine the matter; but he is saved the misfortune
+by death, and his successor, Gregory XIV, approves of the institution of
+the society in its utmost extent, confirms their privileges, and ordains
+that, under pain of excommunication, all proceedings against the society
+should be quashed (page 21). In short, neither in the multifarious
+preamble, nor in the short actuating clause, does Clement XIV once advance
+an opinion of his {110} own adverse to the society; but throughout lends
+himself to the representations of foreign cabals, to which he at last
+confessedly sacrifices them.
+
+All, then, that this rescript proves is, that powerful parties prevailed,
+in certain states, against the Jesuits, and that Clement XIV,
+notwithstanding the _approval_ and _confirmation_ of the council of Trent,
+evinced by their declaration, as above cited; notwithstanding the approval
+and confirmation of successive popes; notwithstanding his own approval and
+regret (all clearly inserted in this rescript); found himself compelled, by
+the pressure of unjust and arbitrary power, to withhold his confirmation,
+to suppress and abolish a society, to whom he knew it was doubtful, whether
+religion and piety or science and letters were more indebted.
+
+Such is the analysis of the luminous brief of destruction, so triumphantly
+referred to by sir John Hippisley; such the sanction of peace {111} and
+amity with the philosophical ministers, Pombal, Choiseul, Aranda, &c. The
+pontifical domain was to be saved; the portions of it already seized,
+Avignon, Benevento, Ponte-Corvo, &c., to be restored; the turbulent Jesuits
+extinct, harmony and concord were to bless the earth! How were these
+glorious prospects realized? Every succeeding year involved the Roman see
+in fresh troubles: new invasions of its spiritual and temporal rights
+continued to distress the succeeding pontiff, Pius VI, and, at last,
+conducted him to death in a dungeon, although, to save his domain from the
+grasp of violence, he had consented, that Ganganelli's brief should subsist
+unaltered.
+
+It is now evident, that the suppression of the Jesuits was the result of
+the conspiracy formed against them; in Spain and Sicily by the Inquisition,
+in Portugal by Pombal, and in France by the Jansenists, the parliaments,
+and philosophers: how just and wise we have seen; let us now inquire whence
+results their restoration {112} by Pius VII. "The catholic world demands,
+with unanimous voice, the re-establishment of the society of Jesus. We
+daily receive, to this effect, the most pressing petitions, from our
+venerable brethren, the archbishops and bishops[47], and the most
+distinguished persons, especially since the abundant fruits, which this
+society has produced in the above countries (Russia and Sicily), have been
+generally known." There is a striking contrast between the simplicity and
+direct language of this bull, and the artful and complicated expositions
+with which Ganganelli labours in his brief to lull his own conscience, and
+to justify, in the sight of others, the act he thought to be necessary. And
+why is the re-establishment of the society demanded? From a hope, that they
+may counteract the evils, which the neglect of religious education has
+suffered to spread over the world, and from a {113} conviction that they
+were put down by the disciples of a false philosophy combining with the
+vilest of passions. In regard to protestant countries, their principles of
+loyalty are conclusive in their favour; and, in spite of the popish plots,
+it has been proved, that their religious doctrines never led them, as a
+body, to interfere in political affairs. These motives for their
+re-establishment, and my last observation, naturally remind me, that it is
+time to state the authorities, so highly honourable to the society, which I
+have been induced to examine and collect; there are, however, two other
+circumstances mentioned by sir John Hippisley, which I cannot pass over
+without notice. He objects to students for the priesthood among the Jesuits
+being sent abroad, to Sicily, to obtain ordination, instead of receiving it
+at the hands of their own national prelates. It appears, by this, that sir
+John is not aware that, in an order, it is requisite to obtain ordination
+through a superior of the order. {114}
+
+In all religious orders, candidates for priesthood must be presented by
+their proper religious superior to some bishop. The prelate may examine the
+candidate; and, if he has no canonical objection, he promotes him to orders
+on the title of religious poverty; the superior, or the order, remaining
+answerable for his maintenance. But no priest of the regulars can assume
+any exercise of ministerial functions, in preaching, or administering
+sacraments, without licence of the diocesan prelate, who may examine,
+suspend, and correct him, incurring thus a certain responsibility. Of this
+subjection of regulars to the established prelates, surely, sir John must
+have been aware; why, then, endeavour to alarm us with the prospect of
+Jesuits colonizing in the south of Italy, for the purpose of overspreading
+these islands? I have reason, upon recent inquiry, to suspect, that sir
+John has been misled by his Sicilian informer, as to the voyagers for the
+priesthood; and the supposed system of seeking {115} furtive ordinations
+beyond the seas will vanish before a plain relation of a few trifling
+facts. In 1806 an ecclesiastical student, _on account of his health_,
+embarked for Naples in a neutral ship, which touched at Palermo, where he
+remained, having learned that Buonaparte had seized on Naples: he was
+joined, the next year, by another student, who went abroad from the same
+motive, that of health. To be of use to their catholic countrymen, whose
+number was daily increasing, by the arrival of new regiments, they entered
+into holy orders, though, it appears, they were not allowed to officiate as
+priests among them. These recovered their health, and returned home. In the
+course of the three ensuing years, one priest, and ten students, who were
+impressed with a strong desire to study in a catholic university, went
+also, at different times, to Palermo, where they experienced a similar
+disappointment in their zeal. Two of the students left Sicily before they
+were ordained, and one died before ordination, leaving nine, the whole
+number {116} ordained. The priest also died abroad. So that, instead of
+nineteen, there were altogether only nine, who obtained orders: one of
+these is the distinguished president of the new seminary of education in
+Ireland. For the last six years, not one catholic student has had a thought
+of following their example. Such trifling occasional emigrations of a few
+students will neither alarm nor surprise those who know, that, for more
+than two centuries, the penal laws have driven all English and Irish
+catholics, who were not content to live in ignorance at home, to seek
+education abroad; that this had become an invariable custom; and that every
+year scores of British subjects went abroad.
+
+Sir John also objects to the Jesuits' appropriating any pecuniary resource,
+arising from the wreck of their society, to the uses of a seminary of
+education; he thinks it opposite to the principle, which gave birth to the
+institution of Maynooth; and is for seizing, and {117} bestowing on
+Maynooth, thirty thousand pounds of their money, which they are said to
+have generously transmitted to Ireland, for the establishment of a place of
+education (page 39 of the printed Speech). How would this agree with that
+spirit of humanity, benevolence, and hospitality, to say nothing at present
+of justice, which prompted the genius of Britain to give an asylum to these
+persecuted servants of God, against the relentless fury of jacobins and
+philosophers? Besides, the institution of Maynooth, and the establishment
+intended differ widely: the college of Maynooth is particularly designed
+for clerical education; that to which the thirty thousand pounds is to be
+devoted is to be a seminary for general learning; an establishment, which
+must be attended with most salutary consequences to Ireland, where it will
+prevent emigration of the catholic youth, and where, with religion and
+knowledge, it will undoubtedly confirm and spread the spirit of _loyalty_.
+It would be, I was going to say, madness; it would surely be unwise, to
+check, {118} on old worn-out prejudices, the happy growth of a spirit,
+which has, in that country, met much to struggle with, and only wants to be
+enlightened to show itself as firm and ardent as in any part of the empire.
+
+After all, I have good grounds to know, that sir John is misinformed
+respecting the source of the gift of thirty thousand pounds to the new
+seminary: _no money has been recently transmitted from the society here to
+Ireland_. The sum, on which the new house of education is rising, _was not
+secured by the Jesuits from the wreck of the society_: it is, strictly, the
+_private property_ of a free Briton. This, I am informed, on good
+authority, is the fact; but, supposing it had been saved by the Jesuits
+from the ruin of their continental establishments, from which they were so
+cruelly turned adrift, and plundered by despots, because they were
+Englishmen; nay, supposing every guinea of it had been coined at the mint
+of _king Nicolas of Paraguay_, could this authorize sir John to assume the
+despotic {119} principle of a foreign minister, a Pombal, a Choiseul, and
+to decide at once, _de son chef_, in the land of liberty, that his
+unoffending fellow subjects, who, under the safeguard of the laws, are
+prosecuting an honourable profession, shall again be stripped and subjected
+to arbitrary confiscation? If the Ganganellian maxim, that "the accused may
+be plundered without being heard," be tolerated at Rome, in the "_plenitude
+of power_, which the pope possesses, as moderator of the Christian
+republic," it is far otherwise in this happy land, where men, no longer
+persecuted for their religious opinions, maintaining their _sworn_
+allegiance to their king, are sure for their persons and property to find
+safety in the laws, and protection from the sovereign.
+
+I have spoken of sir John Hippisley's opinions freely; I trust I have not
+done it coarsely. I was greatly surprised to find him taking the part he
+does. Of Clement XIV I feel inclined to speak more harshly than I have. I
+remember being pleased with his Letters when I was a {120} boy, upon the
+same principle that I was pleased with the meeting of the _Etats Generaux_,
+in 1789, at Versailles, where I was a spectator: a philosophical pope, and
+a philosophical senate, were mental _bon bons_, adapted to the puerile
+taste of my understanding; but, grown old, I have no relish for either.
+Ganganelli degraded the tiara, and helped to prepare the French revolution.
+
+I now return to our authorities. I have anticipated several great names
+incidentally, while engaged in canvassing those cited against the Jesuits;
+to these I have now to add the empress Catherine of Russia; of many popes,
+Clement XIII in particular, and the very destroyer of the society, Clement
+XIV; M. D'Eguilles, president of the parliament of Thoulouse; the abbe
+Proyart, author of a work entitled, _Louis XVI dethrone avant d'etre Roi_;
+Montesquieu, Haller, Muratori, Buffon, Grotius, Leibnitz, Bacon, Frederick
+the Great, Johnson, Bausset, Richelieu, Raynal, Juan, and Ulloa; with a
+multitude {121} of historians and biographers, to say nothing of the Jesuit
+writers themselves. But the most striking testimony in favour of the
+society, is a formal judgment given by the bishops of France on certain
+articles proposed for their examination, by Louis XV, relative to the
+doctrine, the government, the conduct, and usefulness of the French
+Jesuits. How any man can withstand such an array of testimony, I am at a
+loss to conceive; and still more how he can venture, at this time of day,
+to arm himself with the calumnies and horrors of the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries, to attack a body of men, and a code of regulations,
+nowise accountable for the errors and crimes of individuals, at periods
+when men, in general, were as inveterate on the score of religious
+doctrines, as they have lately been on that of liberty and equality; when
+the Catholic and the Hugonot were alike ferocious and cruel, in the
+maintenance of their respective systems, though they scarcely equalled the
+fury and the horrors demonstrated by the deists, atheists, and democratical
+despots, who {122} preceded the settled tyranny, which has been just
+overthrown by the united force of Europe. The Jesuits were, indeed, the
+great preachers of the Christian religion, such as it had been received for
+ages; but they are no more answerable for the opinions on regicide, murder,
+and other horrid doctrines of former distracted times, than are the
+Washingtons and Franklins for the atrocities of the Robespierres and Marats
+in our own days of political insanity.
+
+It will perhaps be thought necessary, that I should give something more
+than the illustrious names I have cited; I shall therefore proceed to
+prove, that I have not pressed them into the cause of the Jesuits, but
+enrolled them on their voluntary appearance. I shall omit those, whom I
+have already incidentally quoted, and arrange the others in the order in
+which I have mentioned them. {123}
+
+CATHERINE II, OF RUSSIA.
+
+Catherine, when at Mohiloff, found, that the people of that part of her
+dominions professed the catholic religion, and that they were very much
+attached to the order of Jesuits. She appointed a catholic archbishop of
+Mohiloff, and gave him a Jesuit as a coadjutor. She permitted, at the same
+time, the establishment of a seminary of Jesuits, the direction of which
+was confided to father Gabriel Denkiewitz, appointed vicar-general of his
+order. In the year 1783, she sent the archbishop of Mohiloff's coadjutor,
+whose name was Benelawski, to Rome, as minister from the court of Russia,
+who carried a letter from her to Pius VI, demanding the re-establishment of
+the society of Jesuits, which, though at the time disavowed at Petersburgh,
+through deference to the Greek Christians, was actually written with her
+own hand. The following passages are extracted from the letter: "I know,
+that your holiness is under considerable {124} embarrassments. Your dignity
+cannot harmonize with politics, so long as politics are at variance with
+religion. The motives, which have induced me to grant protection to the
+Jesuits, are founded in reason and justice, as well as on the hope of their
+becoming useful to my states. This assemblage of peaceable and inoffensive
+men shall live in my empire, because, of all catholic societies, they are
+the best qualified to instruct my subjects, and to inspire them with
+sentiments of humanity and the genuine principles of the Christian
+religion. I am resolved to support these priests against every power
+whatever; and, in so doing, I only perform my duty, as I am their
+sovereign, and look upon them as faithful, useful, and innocent subjects. I
+am so much the more desirous of seeing four of them invested with the power
+of confirming at Moscow and Petersburgh, as the two catholic churches of
+those cities are confided to their care[48]." The pope made the
+circumstance {125} known to the French and Spanish ambassadors, who
+consulted their respective courts, neither of which, however, chose openly
+to interfere. It was an embarrassing situation for Pius VI; the suppression
+of the order was too recent; he wished neither to treat the memory of
+Clement XIV with disrespect, nor to embroil himself with France or Spain;
+and, in complying with the request of Catherine, he acted with
+circumspection and without parade. In considering this event, an obvious
+remark presents itself: for upwards of thirty years past, the society of
+the Jesuits have been established in Russia, yet we hear nothing of that
+empire being disturbed either with religious or civil broils, fomented by
+them; though I should not be surprised, if, on reflection, the death of
+Paul were to be imputed, by the modern conspirators, to their machinations.
+On the contrary, the internal tranquillity of that country was never more
+apparent, and the improvement of the mind has made rapid strides. The
+placing of the Jesuits in her dominions is a proof of the {126} sagacity of
+Catherine, and I doubt whether Russia was ever more indebted to any
+sovereign than for this step, which was at once magnanimous, wise, and
+popular.
+
+CLEMENT XIII.
+
+I should not have thought of enrolling a pope among the authorities in
+favour of the Jesuits, it being natural to suppose, that every pope was a
+friend to the society, had I not found a list of them arrayed against them
+by sir John Hippisley, on the authority of Ganganelli's rescript. Now, that
+the sovereign pontiffs interfered in the proceedings and writings of the
+members of the society; that they blamed them for the dissentions in which
+their zeal involved them with their enemies in all parts of the world; and
+that they have condemned some of the fanatical (for this is a term as
+appropriate to catholic as puritan zealots), I say some of the fanatical
+maxims formerly preached by individuals is not denied, and has {127} been
+already noticed in these pages; and this is all that can be gathered from
+the rescript; but that this renders the popes _impugners_ of the order is
+far from being the fact, and for this reason it is I have been induced to
+cite this pontiff, as well as his successor, in the catalogue of
+authorities. By the word _impugner_, I presume, that sir John means
+_assailant_; now, that the disapproval of some casuists, and the blaming of
+untimely or misplaced zeal of some of the society was no assailing of the
+order, the following words of Clement XIII, addressed to the archbishops
+and bishops of France, will, I think, sufficiently prove: "But the thing,
+which gives the deepest wound to the public weal, and to the faithful,
+which is the greatest insult to the apostolic see and to you, is the
+persecution they have raised against the society of Jesus, which has ever
+supplied the church with many able champions, and now, by the credit of a
+prevailing faction, is oppressed and dissipated. Its institute, that
+institute, which the Roman catholic church, {128} assembled in the council
+of Trent, approved of; that institute upon which our predecessors have
+bestowed so many solemn encomiums; which has hitherto found protection and
+received the most signal marks of favour from the kings of France; that
+institute, which you yourselves, not so much out of gratitude as from a
+principle of equity, have celebrated and publicly declared, that it was of
+very singular service to you in your respective dioceses, is now loaded
+with antiquated and groundless calumnies, is treated as a pest, which had
+crept into the church, and is publicly burned with all the marks of
+infamy[49]."
+
+GANGANELLI.
+
+Enough has been said of Clement XIV, in the foregoing pages, to entitle me
+to place him among the authorities in favour of the Jesuits, {129} though
+the solemn act, by which he extirpated the order, may be said to involve
+him among their assailants. The motives and grounds of that act are clear,
+and his private opinion of the order is no less manifest. Men, who approve
+of this act of Clement, are not aware that they are approving of a corrupt
+maxim, with which the enemies of the Jesuits calumniate the society.
+Besides, the destruction of the order was a certain evil, and the good to
+arise from it, the security and inviolability of the holy see, was far from
+being a certain consequence; the contrary has been proved by subsequent
+events. The growth of one generation sufficed to strip the tiara of the
+veneration due to it, and to threaten every crown in Europe with ruin.
+Philosophical universities and academies were every where, on the
+continent, substituted for the colleges of the Jesuits; religion and reason
+no longer went hand in hand in education; the latter, with all her spurious
+offspring, was held up as the grand object and distinguishing character of
+man; the former was neglected, {130} or ridiculed, and soon lost even its
+name in that of superstition. In 1773, Clement XIV abolished the order: in
+1793, a king of France was beheaded; Reason was deified, and altars erected
+to her in various countries; anarchy followed impiety; demons were chosen
+to rule, or rather to confound all order. A successor of Ganganelli was
+torn from Rome, to die in captivity; and others have, since, been degraded
+into tools of the most absolute and heathenish tyranny that ever existed on
+the earth. It is very evident, therefore, that the preservation of the
+power of Rome did not depend upon the destruction of the order of the
+Jesuits, but, rather, that the rescript of 1773 was a warrant for the
+imprisonment, if not the death, of Pius VI, and the subsequent overthrow of
+the holy see. That rescript was, therefore, the result of a short-sighted
+policy. It is impossible to read Ganganelli's Letters, and deny that he was
+highly intellectual, virtuous, religious, and amiable; nor would I confound
+the philosophy which he cultivated, with that which is {131} destructive of
+religious hope and political order; but his whole conduct, in the affair of
+the Jesuits, proves, that his soul was not formed to the honours of
+martyrdom, as he was ready to act against his own conviction, and to
+sacrifice principle to convenience; a maxim peculiarly impugned by Jesuits,
+and by catholics in general.
+
+In addition to the proofs of his good opinion of the society already given,
+I will here insert a passage to be found in the twelfth volume of the
+Annual Register. In addressing the courts of Paris, Madrid, and Naples,
+after his elevation to the pontificate, he states, that, "in regard to the
+Jesuits, he could neither blame nor annihilate an institute, which had been
+applauded and confirmed by nineteen of his predecessors; that he could the
+less do it, because it had been authentically confirmed by the council of
+Trent; and that, by the French maxims, the general council was above the
+{132} pope: that, if it was desired, he would call a council, in which
+every thing should be discussed with justice and equity, and the Jesuits
+heard in their own defence; that he owed to the Jesuits, as to all the
+religious orders, justice and protection; that, besides, the states of
+Germany, the king of Sardinia, and the king of Prussia, had written to him
+in their behalf; and that he could not, by their destruction, content some
+princes, without displeasing others." Nevertheless, without calling a
+council, without hearing their defence, he destroyed them; and, certainly,
+it will ever be a matter of astonishment, that, in a cause of such
+magnitude, a Roman pontiff, whatever motives may have impelled him to
+pronounce the suppression, could so far assimilate himself with the
+ministers of Portugal, Spain, Naples, and France, as to overlook that
+primary maxim, which Rome, whether Pagan or Christian, had in all ages
+respected: "It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die,
+before that {133} he, which is accused, have the accusers face to face, and
+have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against
+him[50]."
+
+The writer of some anecdotes annexed to his Letters, relates one, which
+shows the notoriety of the fact, that his suppression of the Jesuits was
+not the effect of a bad opinion of the order: as it is applicable to the
+subject I will insert it here. "While the bells were ringing, and cannon
+firing, to celebrate his exaltation, the general of the Jesuits observed,
+with a sigh, _there tolls our passing-bell_. Not," says the writer, "that
+Ganganelli was _hostile_ to the Jesuits, but because he thought it was
+_necessary_ to attend to the representations of the sovereigns."
+
+THE PRESIDENT D'EGUILLES.
+
+This gentleman was the Aristides of the French magistracy. I have already
+mentioned {134} him, when speaking of Monclar's _Compte Rendu_[51]. His
+opinion of the persecution of the society will be seen in the following
+passage, which was addressed by him to Louis XV. "If the church be
+incessantly outraged, by the judgments passed against the institute of the
+Jesuits, the throne is still more pointedly attacked, upon the two
+principal motives, which instigate the enemies of the Jesuits to work their
+destruction. The first of these motives is, plainly, to deprive a society,
+which is entirely devoted to the interests of its king, of the education of
+youth; but more especially of the youth of the nobility. The second, which
+is equally as dangerous, is, to astound all the other bodies of the kingdom
+by the terrible fall of that, which seemed the most unlikely to be shaken;
+and thus to make them sensible, that the hatred of the parliaments is more
+to be dreaded than the protection of the king to be coveted."
+
+{135}
+
+ABBE PROYART.
+
+In his work entitled "Louis XVI dethroned before he was King," speaks of
+the Jesuits in these words: "The Jesuits, considered only in the light of
+public teachers, were, during their existence, the first supports of the
+throne."--"The destruction of the Jesuits was the ruin of the precious
+edifice of national education, and gave a general shock to public
+morality." The abbe, from his many testimonies in favour of the Jesuits,
+being suspected to be one of their order, openly declares, "that he never
+belonged to the society, and that he owed them only truth and justice, for
+that he was not even indebted to them for his education."
+
+VOLTAIRE.
+
+I have already cited Voltaire, but I place him in the list here, for the
+purpose of inserting some farther extracts from his Letters. When {136} he
+was solicited by the Jansenistical magistrates to join with them in
+accusing the Jesuits of the crime of regicide, he gave this remarkable
+answer, in his Letter to the Atheist Damilaville: "I should rouse posterity
+in their behalf, if I accused them of a crime, of which Europe, and Damiens
+himself, have acknowledged them innocent." Writing, in 1765, three years
+after the suppression of the Jesuits, to the same Damilaville, he thus
+exults in the realized expectations of D'Alembert: "Victory declares for us
+on every side. I can assure you, that, in a short time, the rabble alone
+will remain under the standard of our enemies." In subsequent letters he
+declares, that "a general revolution was making its appearance in every
+quarter; that philosophy was gaining strength in the north of Germany; that
+similar revolutions were taking place in Poland, Italy, and Spain." Such
+was the rapid effect of the substitution of philosophical to religious
+education! However borne away by the charms of {137} philosophy, Voltaire
+was greatly attached to the Jesuits, and had the highest opinion of them:
+this he fully expresses in a letter to father de la Tour, principal of the
+college of Louis le Grand, where he was himself educated, which has been
+already cited.
+
+MONTESQUIEU.
+
+Montesquieu, mentioning the government of Paraguay, then under the guidance
+of the Jesuits, as an instance, among other extraordinary institutions
+formed to exalt nations to virtue, alludes to the imputed ambition of the
+society to govern; to which he replies, "but it will ever be a glorious
+ambition to govern men by rendering them happy. It is glorious to the
+society to have been the first to give, in those regions, the idea of
+religion united with humanity. By repairing the devastations of the
+Spaniards, they have begun to heal one of the {138} most dangerous wounds
+the human race ever received. They have drawn wild people from woods,
+secured them regular maintenance, and clothed their nakedness; but even,
+had they done no more than add to the stock of industry among men, that
+would have been doing a great deal[52]."
+
+BUFFON.
+
+"The missions," says this celebrated natural philosopher, "have formed more
+men, in the barbarous nations, than the victorious armies of the princes,
+who subjugated them. It is only in this way, that Paraguay has been
+conquered: the gentleness, the good example, the charity, and the exercise
+of virtue constantly maintained by the missionaries, made their way to the
+hearts of the savages, and conquered their distrust and their ferocity.
+They {139} would frequently come, of their own accord, and beg to be made
+acquainted with the law, which rendered men so perfect; to that law they
+submitted and entered into society. Nothing can do more honour to religion
+than to have civilized those nations and laid the foundations of an empire,
+with no other arms than those of virtue[53]."
+
+HALLER.
+
+"The enemies of the society," says Haller, "disparage their best
+institutions: they accuse them of inordinate ambition, on seeing a kind of
+empire formed by them in distant regions; but what plan can be more
+delightful, or more advantageous to humanity, than to assemble human beings
+scattered widely among the gloomy forests of America, to win them from the
+savage state, a state of wretchedness, to put an end to their cruel and
+destructive wars, to {140} enlighten their minds with the truths of
+religion, and to form them into a society like the state of mankind in the
+golden age? Is this not taking up the character of legislator for the
+happiness of men? The ambition, that produces so much good, cannot but be a
+laudable passion. No virtue ever attains that purity, which men are apt to
+exact; but neither is any virtue disfigured by the passions, while these
+serve to promote the general happiness[54]."
+
+MURATORI.
+
+It is hardly necessary to observe, that Muratori's character for talents,
+piety, and virtue, stands very high in the estimation of the learned. He
+was a celebrated Italian writer, a fellow of the chief academies of Italy,
+of the royal society of London, and of the imperial academy of Olmutz, and
+he was consulted as the oracle of {141} the age by the literati of Europe.
+He was born in 1672 and died in 1750. He was unconnected with the society
+of the Jesuits, and the high praises he bestows upon them could, therefore,
+only have been dictated by a just esteem and admiration. The following
+extracts are from his work entitled, _Il Cristianessimo felice nella
+missioni de Padri della Compagnia di Gesu nel Paraguai_; a work which may
+serve as a commentary on the edicts, declarations, and manifestoes, of the
+court of Portugal under the dictatorship of Pombal. "I could wish, that
+some one among the enemies of the church of Rome, who carry their aversion
+to the Jesuits so far as to asperse the zeal of those admirable
+missionaries, and their purity of intention, in the laborious functions,
+which they discharge among the infidels, would only accompany them awhile
+in their apostolic excursions, to see and examine what they do, and what
+they suffer for the salvation of souls. He would undoubtedly, and that very
+soon, lay aside former prejudices, and, perhaps, what he had seen would
+suffice {142} to make him renounce his error." After enumerating, briefly,
+the charges against the Jesuits of America, such as their making themselves
+petty princes; engrossing the commerce of Paraguay; becoming dangerously
+wealthy and powerful; bribing governors; robbing the Indians, under cover
+of pleasing God, &c. &c., he says, "This is an abstract of the defamatory
+reports spread about the world, either by word of mouth, or printed libels,
+against the missionaries of Paraguay. I will advance nothing without clear
+proofs. I am not afraid of affirming, that all these imputations are
+calumnies and detestable forgeries, suggested by envy and malice." He then
+proceeds to prove them to be such[55].
+
+{143}
+
+GROTIUS, LEIBNITZ, BACON.
+
+This triumvirate of religion and genuine philosophy were friends and
+admirers of the Jesuits; they are cited or referred to in the following
+Letters, I shall therefore be satisfied with naming them here.
+
+FREDERIC THE GREAT.
+
+"Frederic," says the elegant scholar already twice quoted[56], "in spite of
+his sceptical vanity, appeared sometimes to be convinced of the dangerous
+principles of all those false philosophers, whose adulatory attentions he
+was weak enough to be pleased with. In one of these moments, in which his
+good sense retained the ascendency over his self-love, when the news
+reached him of the proscription of the Jesuits in France, by the
+confidential agents of supreme authority: 'Poor souls,' said he, 'they have
+destroyed the foxes, which defended them from the jaws of the {144} wolves,
+and they do not perceive that they are about to be devoured.'" Whomever the
+king of Prussia meant by the wolves, it is well known, that the same
+parliament that devoured the Jesuits in 1764, were equally disposed to
+devour the episcopal body in 1765.
+
+DR. JOHNSON. DEAN KIRWAN.
+
+It is very common to speak of superstition as a shade in the character of
+Johnson; and, no doubt, a modern philosopher will object to the authority
+of one so bigoted as to declare, "that monasteries have something congenial
+to the mind of man." Such objections, however, shall not divert me from
+enrolling him here; for, the opinion he expressed relative to the
+destruction of the Jesuits was the result, not of any superstitious motive,
+but of that penetration, which was not to be blunted by the opposition of
+prejudices. Mrs. Piozzi tells us, that, when he was at Rouen, "he conversed
+with the abbe Rofette about the destruction of the Jesuits, and condemned
+{145} it loudly, as a blow to the general power of the church, and likely
+to be followed with many and dangerous innovations, which might, at length,
+become fatal to religion itself, and shake even the foundations of
+Christianity." With Dr. Johnson let me place Dean Kirwan, who often
+declared, that he imbibed the noble ambition of benefiting mankind in the
+college of the English Jesuits, at St. Omer's[57].
+
+BAUSSET.
+
+Bausset, bishop of Meth, in a Life of Fenelon, published so lately as the
+year 1809, passes a comprehensive and eloquent eulogium on the society, of
+which the following sentences form but a part: "Wherever the Jesuits were
+heard of they preserved all classes of society in a spirit of order,
+wisdom, and consistency. Called, at the commencement of the society, to the
+education of the principal families of the state, they {146} extended their
+cares to the inferior classes, and kept them in the happy habits of
+religious and moral virtue."--"They had the merit of attracting honour to
+their religious character, by a severity of manners, a temperance, a
+nobility, and a personal disinterestedness, which even their enemies could
+not deny them. This is the fairest answer they can make to satires, which
+accuse them of relaxed morality."--"These men, who were described as so
+dangerous, so powerful, so vindictive, bowed, without a murmur, under the
+terrible hand that crushed them[58]."
+
+JUAN AND ULLOA.
+
+The very names of these travellers suggest the virtues and the praises of
+the Jesuits. It was from their volumes that Robertson took his account of
+the settlement of Paraguay, and I do not think it necessary here to extend
+their testimony.
+
+{147}
+
+RICHELIEU.
+
+When the four ministers of Charenton presented very heavy accusations
+against the Jesuits to Louis XIII, cardinal Richelieu answered them all:
+for the sake of brevity, I shall extract only his reply on the charge of
+regicide. "As to what you say of their doctrine, with respect to the power
+they attribute to the pope over kings, you would have spoken very
+differently of it, if, instead of learning it from the _private writings_
+of a few particulars, you had collected it from the mouth of their general,
+who, in the year 1610, made a public and solemn declaration, by which he
+not only disapproves, but forbids all those of his order, under very severe
+penalties, to teach or maintain it lawful, under what pretext of tyranny
+soever, to attempt upon the persons of kings and princes." {148}
+
+ABBE RAYNAL.
+
+To the foregoing testimonies, let us add that of one of the bitterest
+enemies of Christianity. "The magnificence of the ceremonies," says Raynal,
+"attracts the Indians to the churches, where they find pleasure and piety
+united. There it is that religion is amiable, and it is at first in her
+ministers that she there gains love. Nothing equals the purity of the
+morals, the mild and tender zeal, the paternal solicitude, of the Jesuits
+of Paraguay. Every pastor is truly the father, as well as the director of
+his parishioners. There his authority is not felt, for he orders,
+prohibits, and punishes, only what is punished, prohibited, and ordered by
+the religion, which all of them, as well as he, worship and cherish."--"A
+government in which nobody is idle, nobody works to excess; in which food
+is wholesome, plentiful, and impartially partaken by all the citizens, who
+are conveniently lodged, conveniently clothed; in {149} which old persons,
+widows, orphans, and the sick, find a succour unknown in any other part of
+the globe; in which every one marries according to inclination, and without
+interest; and where large families are a comfort, without a possibility of
+becoming a burthen; in which the debauchery inseparable from idleness, that
+equally corrupts opulence and poverty, never accelerates the degradation,
+or rather the decline of human life; in which factitious passions are never
+excited, and well-regulated desires never thwarted; in which the advantages
+of commerce are enjoyed; without danger of contagion from the vices
+attendant on luxury; in which well-stored magazines, and mutual gratuitous
+succours among nations, rendered brothers by the same religion, afford a
+secure resource against the want that the uncertainty or inclemency of the
+seasons may produce; in which criminal justice has never been under the
+melancholy necessity of condemning a single criminal to death, to ignominy,
+or to punishment of any duration; and in which the very name of a tax or of
+a lawsuit is {150} unknown." Listen, I pray, to this account, from a
+quarter so unsuspected, of "the _slavery_ in which the Jesuits held the
+Indians of Paraguay, and the _atrocities_ which they exercised there;" for
+such is the language of their assailant, whom one must be surprised to find
+unacquainted with the writings of such an author as Raynal.
+
+THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE.
+
+There are forty-five names of bishops subscribed to a reply made by them to
+certain articles proposed for their examination by Louis XV. Their judgment
+is given at considerable length, and the testimony of it is too valuable to
+be abridged. I have already referred the reader to the document, printed at
+length, in the Appendix, at the end of this volume; to enable him, however,
+to judge here of the importance of it, I will insert the articles in this
+place. {151}
+
+The first is: "Of what use the Jesuits may be in France; the advantages or
+inconveniences that may attend the various functions, which they exercise
+under our authority."
+
+The second: "How the Jesuits behave, in their instructions, and in their
+own conduct, with regard to certain opinions, which strike at the safety of
+the king's person; as, likewise, with regard to the received doctrine of
+the clergy of France, contained in the declaration of the year 1682; and,
+in general, with regard to their opinions on the other side of the Alps."
+
+The third: "The conduct of the Jesuits, with regard to their subordination
+to bishops; and whether, in the exercise of their functions, they do not
+encroach on the pastoral rights and privileges."
+
+The fourth: "Whether it may not be convenient to moderate and set bounds to
+the {152} authority, which the general of the Jesuits exercises in France."
+
+The replies fully substantiate the utility of the society, the purity of
+their doctrine, the regularity of their conduct, and the consistency of
+their government with their duty to their king and country[59].
+
+Such, then, is the nature of the authorities, that rank in favour of the
+Jesuits; and the reader, by comparing them with the inveterate and corrupt
+spirits, which have been dragged from obscurity to destroy them a second
+time, will be able to estimate their respective value, and the motives of
+the new conspirators against them.
+
+Perhaps enough has incidentally appeared, in the preceding pages, to inform
+the reader of the {153} chief crimes imputed to the society of the Jesuits,
+and to satisfy his mind of the falsehood of the imputations, as well as of
+the baseness and wickedness of the means contrived for attaching them upon
+those devoted victims. Many of the imputations are also removed in the
+following Letters. And when I consider, that the judgment of the bishops of
+France affords, on these points, a complete refutation of the slanders
+which have been lavished upon the society, I feel, that I should be wasting
+time, and abusing the attention of my reader, with unnecessary repetition.
+A brief notice, however, of some of the principal charges against the
+society, may not be unacceptable here. Let us inquire into those of
+ambition, commerce, and sedition.
+
+In the searches which I have made, it appears to me, both from narrative of
+facts, and from reasoning on the nature of things, that the society of the
+Jesuits have been most basely slandered, as well as inhumanly treated. What
+{154} was their ambition? The glory of God, and the edification of man.
+But, say their enemies, how were these pursued? and were they always the
+real objects? The Jesuits are accused of shaping their course to the
+richest and most commodious countries; with extending the limits of the
+church to enlarge the circle of their commerce; with preaching sedition;
+with raising, on the cross, a throne to their ambition rather than to
+Christ. What do we learn from reason, and from fact? The roads to all
+ecclesiastical honours, all political employments, are shut to Jesuits, who
+renounce the former by a formal vow, and are prohibited the latter by the
+most rigorous penalties[60]. The countries, where we hear of Jesuits, are
+inhabited by cannibals, by Hurons, Iroquois, Canadians, Illinoise, Negroes,
+Ethiopians, Laplanders, Tartars; they are barren deserts, eternal snows,
+burning sands, gloomy forests; there did these _ambitious_ men live on wild
+herbs and bitter {155} roots, and cover themselves with leaves, or the
+skins of wild beasts; there did they run from cave to cave by day, and
+sleep at night in the hollows of rocks. Are these the abodes of luxury and
+wealth? It is indeed a glorious ambition to make men happy, to teach, and
+to save: such is the ambition displayed by the Jesuits, and the throne they
+raised on the cross was one of faith, hope, and charity.
+
+With respect to commerce. By the canons of the church, it is forbidden to
+ecclesiastics, and, certainly, for good reasons. Commerce is a profession,
+a pursuit, to which men devote their time, for the purpose of obtaining a
+livelihood, and of amassing fortunes. It is a pursuit inconsistent with the
+habits and duties of the ministers of religion. This is the imputation
+meant to be thrown on the Jesuits, and which Pombal, their great enemy, and
+the enemy of every virtue, endeavoured to fix upon them. It was not
+difficult for them to repel this charge. They had a depot at Lisbon, where
+{156} they kept effects, which served them instead of money. These things
+were sold, as a proprietor of land would sell his corn, to support the
+brothers of the order in America, who, having no income, could only be
+supplied with commodities, in those savage countries. If this did not
+militate against the spirit that prohibits commerce to priests, as little
+did the kind of traffic which was superintended by the missionaries in
+Paraguay, and which was, in fact, a species of piety. With what delight
+does one read the account of it, in the Voyage of Juan and Ulloa. "The
+Jesuits take upon them the sole care of disposing of the manufactures and
+products of the Guaranies Indians, designed for commerce; these people
+being naturally careless and indolent, and, doubtless, without the diligent
+inspection and pathetic exhortations of the fathers, would be buried in
+sloth and indigence. The case is very different in the missions of the
+Chiquitos, who are industrious, careful, and frugal; and their genius so
+happily adapted to commerce, as not to stand in need of any factors. {157}
+The priests in the villages of this nation are of no expense to the crown,
+the Indians themselves rejoicing in maintaining them, and join in
+cultivating a plantation, filled with all kinds of grain and fruits, for
+the priest; the remainder, after this decent support, being applied to
+purchase ornaments for the churches. That the Indians may never be in any
+want of necessaries, it is one part of the minister's care to have always
+in readiness a stock of different kinds of tools, stuffs, and other goods;
+so that all who are in want repair to him, bringing, by way of exchange,
+wax, of which there are here great quantities, and other products. And this
+barter is made with the strictest integrity, that the Indians may have no
+reason to complain of oppression, and that the high character of the
+priests, for justice and sanctity, may be studiously preserved. The goods
+received in exchange are, by the priests, sent to the superior of the
+missions, who is a different person from the superior of the Guaranies;
+and, with the produce, a fresh stock of goods is laid in. The {158}
+principal intention of this is, that the Indians may have no occasion to
+leave their own country, in order to be furnished with necessaries; and, by
+this means, are kept from the contagion of those vices, which they would
+naturally contract in their intercourse with the inhabitants of other
+countries, where the depravity of human nature is not corrected by such
+good examples and laws[61]." This is the commerce, the only commerce
+carried on by the Jesuits; a commerce, that the apostles themselves would
+have maintained as a duty. I speak of the society, and of their spirit as a
+body; for I am not ignorant of the scandal which was brought upon them by
+the conduct of P. Lavalette, who, under pretence of augmenting the revenues
+of St. Peter's, ruined the mission at Martinique, and the cause of the
+Jesuits in France. What numerous body can be answerable for every
+individual of it? The circumstances attending the conduct of Lavalette are
+not very clear; but to contend {159} for his innocence is not necessary to
+the character of the order, the purity and integrity of which, however,
+derive a new demonstration from the very effect produced by his misconduct,
+be the guilt of that what it may, for it exonerates all the other Jesuit
+missionaries from the charge of trading. This charge had long existed,
+previous to Lavalette's affair: long before had hatred been upon the watch,
+and calumny active: long before had both the old and new world been full of
+Jesuit missionaries, and every where were they exposed to the scrutinizing
+looks of their enemies: no sooner was Lavalette denounced, than all eyes
+were turned upon him, and immediately all Europe rang with his name.
+Scarcely had that of the bold navigator, who discovered, or that of the
+sanguinary captain, who conquered America, travelled so rapidly, or with so
+much noise. Innumerable libels issued from the press, and nothing equalled
+the celebrity of the subject. What is the evident inference? This: that,
+although their enemies were so vigilant in observing, so skilful in {160}
+detecting, so eager to expose such of the missionaries, who, in spite of
+their institute, should become merchants, yet Lavalette was the only one
+that had ever afforded them a shadow of proof for such a charge.
+
+The accusation of preaching sedition, and sowing the seeds of revolt, is
+equally unmerited. It is true, that the Jesuits were assiduous in
+preventing all personal intercourse between the Indians and the Spaniards
+and Portugueze, for which they were charged with a seditious intention of
+throwing off the Spanish government. I know not that the throwing off of
+governments should shock modern philosophers, or the modification of
+religion disturb their brain; but I know, that very different motives are
+assigned for this assiduity of the Jesuits, in excluding the Europeans from
+the Indians; motives, which merit honour here and crowns of glory
+hereafter. The reader will thank me for communicating them in the simple
+and affecting language of the Spanish travellers last cited. "The {161}
+missionary fathers will not allow any of the inhabitants of Peru, whether
+Spaniards or others, Mestizos or even Indians, to come within their
+missions in Paraguay. Not with a view of concealing their transactions from
+the world; or that they are afraid lest others should supplant them of part
+of the products and manufactures; nor for any of those causes, which, even
+with less foundation, envy has dared to suggest; but for this reason, and a
+very prudent one it is, that their Indians, who being as it were new born
+from savageness and brutality, and initiated into morality and religion,
+may be kept steady in this state of innocence and simplicity. These Indians
+are strangers to sedition, pride, malice, envy, and other passions, which
+are so fatal to society. But, were strangers admitted to come among them,
+their bad examples would teach them what at present they are happily
+ignorant of; but should modesty, and the attention they pay to the
+instructions of their teachers, be once laid aside, the shining advantages
+of these settlements would soon come {162} to nothing; and such a number of
+souls, who now worship the true God in the beauty of holiness, and live in
+tranquillity and love (of which such slender traces are seen among
+civilized nations), would be again seduced into the paths of disorder and
+perdition."--"Hence it is, that the Jesuits have inflexibly adhered to
+their maxim of not admitting any foreigners among them: and in this they
+are certainly justified by the melancholy example of the other missions of
+Peru, whose decline from their former happiness and piety is the effect of
+an open intercourse[62]." It is also true, that the Indians did revolt, if
+that term can be applied to an act rendered unavoidable by the horrid
+avarice and despotism, which had conspired to sacrifice these happy and
+innocent tribes; but so far were the Jesuits from being instigators of the
+revolt, that they were in danger of being the victims of it, of which they
+were well aware. The facts would form a long and interesting {163}
+narrative; but it is only necessary, at present, to state a few
+particulars. A notion had been generated in the imagination of Pombal, the
+Portugueze minister, that, in the region of those happy settlements, there
+were mines of gold, unknown to the inhabitants. On these he cast his eyes,
+and commenced an intrigue for exchanging that territory with Spain, for
+others, at the immense distance of three hundred leagues. This being
+effected, he resolved, that the whole Indian population of Paraguay should
+be transported. The Jesuits were ordered to dispose the people to
+transmigrate. They, at first, ventured to represent modestly the difficulty
+of such a removal, and to conjure the officers of government to consider,
+what an undertaking it was, to transport, over such wildernesses, thirty
+thousand souls, with their cattle and effects, to a distance of nearly a
+thousand miles: they were sharply told, that obedience and not
+expostulation was expected. The consequences present a history, that might
+draw tears from the most obdurate. Now would have been the time for the
+{164} Jesuits to establish their empire, had the project imputed to them
+been founded. What was their conduct? Rather than become rebels, these
+faithful and humble subjects laboured earnestly to prevail upon the Indians
+to obey the mandate. Their exertions, however great, were not satisfactory,
+and new commands for haste were issued; a few months were allowed for an
+undertaking, which, if it could be executed at all, required years. This
+precipitation ruined the whole. The poor creatures, who were to be torn
+from their habitations, driven to extremities, began to distrust their own
+missionaries, and suspected them of acting in concert with the officers of
+Spain and Portugal. From that moment they looked upon them only as so many
+traitors, who were seeking to deliver them up to their old inveterate
+enemies. In the course of a short time, peace, order, and happiness, gave
+way to war, confusion, and misery. Those Indians, previously so flexible,
+so docile, insensibly lost that spirit of submission and simplicity, which
+had distinguished them, {165} and they every where prepared to make a
+vigorous resistance. The contest lasted a considerable time, during which
+the Indians experienced some success, but were ultimately defeated; some of
+them burnt their towns and betook themselves in thousands to the woods and
+mountains, where they perished miserably. After surveying all the plains,
+searching all the forests, digging all the mountains, sounding all the
+lakes and rivers, to establish the limits of the country, no mines were
+found, and the director of the scheme, Gomez, finding himself the dupe of
+his mad imagination and puerile credulity, wished it possible to conceal
+his shame and prevent his disgrace, by having the treaty between the two
+courts annulled. He even descended so low as to beseech the Jesuits
+themselves to endeavour to effect the annulling of it. They, of course,
+paid no attention to the entreaties of a man, whose insatiable avidity had
+caused the ruin of thirty thousand of their fellow creatures; and it was
+not till Charles III succeeded to the crown of Spain, that the treaty,
+{166} of which he had never approved, was annulled. There was now an end to
+the war in Paraguay, so fatal to its once happy, pious, and virtuous
+population, who, in consequence of it, lost not only their property, but
+their innocence, their piety, their docility, their gentleness, their
+simplicity, which were superseded by European debauchery, hypocrisy, and
+perfidy; vices that formed a new and almost insurmountable obstacle to the
+progress of religion, in those immense regions, where, for so many years,
+it had flourished[63].
+
+Having shown the pious nature of the ambition, which inflamed the zeal of
+the Jesuits; the paternal nature of the commerce, which consisted in
+necessary commodities, taken in barter for the provision of their
+establishments, and not in rich products, of various countries, freighted
+on wealthy speculations; and having {167} shown also that their conduct, in
+excluding Europeans from the Paraguay settlements, was not the effect of a
+seditious disposition, I should now conclude this chapter, did I not, as I
+proceed, feel more and more a desire to remove the prejudices, which an
+extraordinary combination of passions and talents, operating on the
+progress of human affairs, has spread over the character of men, who appear
+to me to have been actuated by the sublimest motives, such as might be
+attributed to angels; the glory of God, and the benefit of mankind. The
+picture drawn by the abbe Barruel of one of the ex-Jesuits, who was
+murdered at Avignon, in one of the revolutionary massacres, is a genuine
+and convincing representation of a celestial spirit, which never could have
+been nourished in a corrupt society, which must have owed its qualities to
+an exalted one. This portrait cannot but be viewed with love and
+admiration, and the reader would think an apology for placing it before him
+superfluous. {168}
+
+"Avignon and the Comtat had been declared, by the assembly, united to
+France. Jourdan, surnamed _Coup-tete_, was at Avignon with his banditti.
+The unfortunate persons shut up in the prisons were devoted by him to
+death. An immense pit was opened to serve as their grave, and loads of sand
+were carried thither to cover the bodies. There were six hundred prisoners
+in the castle: the hour was fixed for putting them to death and throwing
+them, one after the other, into the pit. There was, at Avignon, a virtuous
+priest, one of those men for whom we feel, on earth, a veneration, like
+that paid to the saints in heaven. His name was Nolhac; he had formerly
+been rector of the noviciat of the Jesuits at Thoulouse, and was now eighty
+years old. For thirty years he had been the parish priest of St.
+Symphorien, a parish, which he had taken in preference, from its being that
+of the poor. During all these years, spent in the town, he had been the
+father and refuge of the indigent, the consoler of the afflicted, the
+adviser and friend of the {169} inhabitants, and he would not listen to
+their entreaties, to quit the place, on the arrival of the jacobins with
+Jourdan and his banditti. He could never resolve to leave his parishoners,
+deprived of their minister, in the beginning of the troubles of the schism,
+and far less to leave them, deprived of the consolations of religion, while
+under the tyranny of the banditti. Martyrdom, the glory of shedding his
+blood for Jesus Christ, for his church, or for the faithful, were, to him,
+but the accomplishment of desires and wishes, which, all his life, had been
+formed in his soul, and with which he knew how to inspire his disciples,
+when he was directing them in the paths _of perfection_. His life itself
+had been but a martyrdom, concealed by a countenance always serene, and
+always beaming angelic joy, with peace of conscience. His body, clothed
+with the hair-shirt, had needed the strong constitution, with which nature
+had endowed him, to support him under the mortifications, watchings, and
+fasts he endured, through all the activity of a minister and the austerity
+of {170} an anchorite. Daily at prayer and meditation long before light;
+daily visiting the sick and the poor, whom he never left without
+administering, together with spiritual consolations, temporal comforts,
+confided to his hands by the faithful; always poor as to himself, but rich
+for others, it was at length time to consummate the sacrifice of a life
+wholly devoted to charity and to his God.
+
+"M. Nolhac, whom the banditti themselves had hitherto held sacred, was sent
+prisoner to the castle the very day before that on which the six hundred
+victims were to be put to death. His appearance among those unhappy
+persons, who all knew and revered him, was that of a consoling angel; his
+first words were those of an apostle of souls, sent in order to prepare
+them for appearing before the judge of the quick and the dead: 'I come to
+die with you, my children: we are all going together to appear before God.
+How I thank him for having sent me to prepare your souls to appear at his
+{171} tribunal! Come, my children, the moments are precious; to-morrow,
+perhaps to-day, we shall be no longer in this world; let us, by a sincere
+repentance, qualify ourselves to be happy in the other. Let me not lose a
+single soul among you. Add to the hope, that God will receive myself into
+his bosom, the happiness of being able to present you to him, as children
+all of whom he charges me to save, and to render worthy of his mercy.' They
+throw themselves at his knees, embrace, and cling to them. With tears and
+sobs they confess their faults: he listens to them, he absolves them, he
+embraces them with that tenderness, which he always manifested to sinners.
+He had the satisfaction of finding them all impressed by his paternal
+exhortations. Already had that unspeakable pleasure, that peace which only
+God can give, as in Heaven he ratifies the absolution of his minister on
+Earth, taken place of fear on their countenances, when the voices of the
+banditti were heard calling out those, who were to be the first victims,
+for {172} whom they waited at the gate of the fort. There, on the right and
+on the left, stood two assassins, each having an iron bar in his hands,
+with which they struck their victims, as they came out, with all their
+force and killed them. The bodies were then delivered to other
+executioners, who mangled the limbs and disfigured them with sabres, to
+render it impossible for the children and friends of the persons to
+distinguish them. After this, the remains were thrown into the infernal
+pit, called the ice-house. Meanwhile, M. Nolhac, within the prison,
+continued exhorting and embracing the unhappy prisoners, and encouraging
+them to go as they were called. He was fortunate enough to be the last, and
+to follow into the presence of his God the six hundred souls, who had
+carried to Heaven the tidings of his heroic zeal and unshaken
+fortitude[64]."--Nolhac was a Jesuit!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{173}
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+    _Of the Order of the Jesuits, with the prominent features of the
+    Institute._
+
+How many men are there, who never knew more of Jesuits than their name,
+that have, from the hideous caricatures, which have been drawn of them,
+imbibed such prejudices, and admitted such horrible impressions against the
+society, as to render it a wonder, and with some a scandal, that any person
+should dare to make the slightest attempt towards their vindication. On the
+perusal of this volume, I trust, that the wonder and the scandal will
+appear to be, that men should have so suffered their reason to be imposed
+upon, and their feelings betrayed, as to be tamely led into the views of
+the destroyers, {174} not only of this religious order, but of religion
+itself, and of social order. I will endeavour here to give a faithful
+miniature of the noble original, which, under distorted features, we have
+been invited to ridicule and to detest. I do not, however, pretend to offer
+to the reader a deep-reasoned discussion, but only a slight sketch of the
+much traduced institute of the Jesuits, and of the pursuits and past
+successes of the men, who devoted themselves to it.
+
+Jesuits were never much known in this kingdom. They were never more than a
+small detachment of missionary priests, privately officiating to the
+scattered catholics, like other priests, sent from the English seminaries
+of Rome, Douay, Valladolid, and Lisbon. They were distinguished only by
+more pointed severity of the ancient penal statutes, which the wisdom and
+liberality of the legislature has considerably relaxed. This greater
+severity arose, not from their conduct, but from the general prejudice
+against their order; and, in England, this {175} prejudice kept pace with
+the esteem in which they were held in all catholic countries. Formerly,
+every enemy of catholic religion was their foe declared. Their perseverance
+and their successes still provoked new hostilities. It is the remark of
+Spondanus, that no set of men were ever so violently opposed, or ever so
+successfully triumphed over opposition. Their assiduity, in their
+multifarious relations to the public, in all countries, where they had
+settlements; in their schools and seminaries, in pulpits and confessionals,
+in hospitals and workhouses, in the cultivation of sciences, in national
+and foreign missions; all this professional business afforded them a large
+field for exertion, and enabled them to recommend themselves to kings,
+prelates, and magistrates, by signal services to the public, and thus to
+blunt the stings of envy and the shafts of malice. The small number, which
+frequented England for nearly two hundred years, in the face of the penal
+laws, had no such field of action. They were confined to administer the
+rites of religion to their brethren {176} in private houses; they were
+necessitated to live separate; they were forced to disguise their
+profession and character, and frequently their very names; they lived under
+the laws, and they were not protected by the laws; they knew, that the
+distorted character, drawn of them by their foreign enemies, obtained ready
+credit in this country, without inquiry or examination; and, as they could
+neither act nor speak in their own defence, it has happened, that the
+notion of a Jesuit is to this day _vulgarly_ (I take the word in its full
+meaning) associated with the idea of every crime.
+
+In foreign countries, the Jesuits formed a conspicuous body, to which no
+man was wholly indifferent. They could not be viewed with the eye of
+contempt. They were highly esteemed, and they were bitterly hated. In all
+catholic countries, the esteem and respect, which they enjoyed, were fully
+established. They were every where considered as pure and holy in their
+morals and conduct, eminently zealous for {177} religion, and highly
+serviceable to the public. Their enemies, at all times, were either open
+separatists from the catholic church, or secret enemies of it, who formed
+parties for its destruction; or they were rivals, who vied with them in
+some branches of the public administration of religion. From these sources
+proceeded, at different times, that undigested mass of criminations,
+unsubstantiated by proof, which are so inconsistently collected in the new
+conspiracy against the Jesuits. It is evidently folly to imagine, that a
+large body of men, connected with the public by a thousand links,
+surrounded by jealous enemies, could possibly be a band of unprincipled
+knaves, impostors, and miscreants. The universal favour of the bulk of so
+many polished nations forbids, at once, such an idea. Popes, kings,
+prelates, magistrates, everywhere protected and employed them. Bishops and
+their clergy everywhere regarded them as their most useful auxiliaries in
+the sacred ministry, because they professedly exercised every duty of it,
+except that of _governing_ the church; {178} and this they renounced by
+vow. The people, in all towns, even in villages, felt their gratuitous
+services. A hundred years ago, if the public voice had been individually
+collected in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Poland,
+undoubtedly, they would rather have parted with any other, perhaps with
+most other religious bodies, than with the society of Jesuits alone. A
+hundred years ago, all the continental sovereigns in Europe would have
+concurred in the same sentiment. With them they advised in all concerns of
+religion; to them they listened as preachers; to them they intrusted the
+instruction of their children, their own consciences, their souls. In those
+days, not only kings, but ministers of kings, and the great bulk of their
+nobles and people, believed in religion. They were sons of men, who had
+fought hard battles in France and Germany, in defence of catholic unity,
+against confederate sects, who had conspired to overturn it. Voltaire had
+not yet appeared among them. Religion was not yet presented to them as an
+object of ridicule. They {179} deemed of religion with reverence and awe,
+and they believed it to be the firmest support of the state and of the
+throne. They venerated its ministers, and among them the Jesuits, because
+they knew, that their institute was well calculated to form its followers
+to the active service of the altars, which they respected.
+
+An idea of the institute of the Jesuits cannot be formed without consulting
+the original code; and the first inspection of it shows the author to have
+been a man of profound thinking, and eminently animated with the spirit of
+religious zeal. _Ad majorem Dei gloriam_ was the motto of Ignatius of
+Loyola, the main principle of all his conduct. He conceived, that a body of
+men, associated to promote God's greater glory, must profess to imitate,
+not one or two, but, universally, all the astonishing virtues of the
+Redeemer; and, in planning his institute, he compressed them all into one
+ruling motion of _zeal_, which, in his ideas, was the purest emanation of
+charity, the summit of {180} Christian perfection. He everywhere employs
+his first principle, as the universal bond, or link, that must unite his
+society with God, and with their neighbours; and every prescription of his
+institute is a direct consequence of it. _The greater glory of God_ is the
+first object that occurs on opening the institute. It is the first thing,
+on which every candidate is questioned; and, if he be accepted, the first
+thing to which he is applied. This alone decides upon the admission and
+dismission of subjects; this regulates their advancement in virtue and
+letters, the preservation of their health, the improvement of their
+talents, the distribution and allotment of their employments. Masters must
+teach, and students must learn, only to advance the greater glory of God:
+this is the rule of superiors, who command; the motive of subjects, who
+obey: this alone is considered in the establishment of domestic discipline,
+in the formation of laws and rules: it is the bond, which connects all, the
+spring, which moves all; every impulse given to the society must {181}
+proceed from this; this alone must accelerate or slacken its progress; for
+this alone it must be maintained; every person in it, every thing in it,
+prayer and action, labour and rest, rules and exceptions, punishments and
+rewards, favours and refusals; in a word, every thing in the institute of
+Ignatius has one motive, one end, one common motto, _The greater glory of
+God_; with this it commences, with this it ends.
+
+Whatever may be the sentiments of persons, of different religious
+persuasions, of this plan of sanctity, certain it is, that the idea of it
+presents something noble; and, in the principles of the catholic church, it
+embraces the height of sanctity. To men acting upon such a principle, no
+virtue could ever be foreign, because every virtue in its turn might be
+wanted to promote God's greater glory. The aim of Ignatius was, first, to
+form them into perfect Christians; and hence he prescribes and requires, in
+all his associates, the full practice of evangelical poverty, perfect
+purity, and intire obedience to lawful {182} authority; and these virtues
+must be sanctioned by vow. He requires, that all and each should emulate
+the other great evangelical counsels, such as mortification of the senses,
+refusal of dignities and honourable distinctions, perfect disinterestedness
+in their several functions, &c. He conceived, that God's glory would be
+procured by the practice of these exalted virtues; but, faithful to his
+principle, he judged that God's _greater_ glory required the communication,
+the diffusion of them among his neighbours. He earnestly wished to bring
+all men to know and adore the Son of God; and, in forming his associates
+for this ministry, he was not content to teach them to be saints, he would
+make them apostles. To the other obligations, which he laid upon them, he
+added the solemn vow of missions, binding them, whenever required, to carry
+the name of God, in the primitive spirit, to the extremities of the globe.
+
+It would be an extravagant exaggeration to assert, that all the followers
+of Ignatius {183} emulated such high gifts: but it has been allowed, in
+general, by the best judges in the catholic church, and, in great measure,
+by persons of other communions, that a large portion of the founder's
+original spirit was infused into the society, which he formed; and that
+Jesuits, cultivated by the mode of government and rules of life which he
+established, achieved feats in every country, which religion must revere,
+and sound policy commend. Their institute does not stop short of any
+perfection, which the author of it thought attainable by human weakness. He
+prescribes in it a variety of means, which his followers must employ, to
+yield service to all, who surround them; and, though all could not be
+performed by each, he strongly confided, that his order would never be
+destitute of men qualified to execute every thing that he prescribed. Some
+things are exacted of all and each, others are to be suited to the
+different talents of the men employed; and the common education, which he
+gives to all, qualifies each to succeed in his respective department. Every
+{184} person, conversant in the affairs of the catholic church, will allow,
+that, by the constant attention of the superiors, not any means of helping
+the public, which the founder had prescribed, was neglected by the body of
+Jesuits; and the general utility resulting from all this was precisely the
+thing, that distinguished this body in the catholic church, and won for it
+the protection of popes and bishops, the countenance of kings and princes,
+the respect and esteem of nations.
+
+As St. Ignatius, in his pursuit of absolute perfection, thought no virtue
+foreign to his institute, so he judged no service, which churchmen could
+yield to the public, foreign to his society. Without pretending to
+enumerate the various duties and occupations, which he recommends to its
+members, I select only a few, upon which he enters into more detailed
+instructions, and to which he specially calls the attention of all
+superiors, the zeal of all their subjects. They are, good example; prayer;
+works of {185} charity to the poor, the imprisoned, the diseased; the
+writing of books of piety and religious instruction; the use of the
+sacrament of penance; preaching; pious congregations; spiritual retreats;
+national and foreign missions; and education of youth in public and
+gratuitous schools. In the catholic scheme of religion, each of these
+things is deemed important; and the united voice of all, who knew Jesuits,
+gives them the full credit of having, during their existence in a body,
+cultivated, with success, each of these several branches. Their preachers
+were heard and admired in every country; their tribunals of penance were
+crouded; the sick and dying were always secure of their attendance, when
+demanded; their books of devotion were everywhere read with confidence; the
+good example, resulting from the purity of their morals, secured them, even
+in the last fatal persecution, from inculpation, it disabled the malice of
+calumny. In the impossibility of criminating living Jesuits, their worst
+enemies could only revile the dead. Hospitals, workhouses, and lazarets,
+were the constant scenes {186} of their zeal; their attendance on them was
+reckoned an appropriate duty of their society. During the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries, when the plague successively ravaged every country
+in Europe, many hundreds of Jesuits are recorded to have lost their lives
+in the service of the infected. Several perished, in the same exercise of
+charity, in the last century, at Marseilles and Messina; and, during the
+late retreat of the French army from Moscow, not less than ten Jesuits died
+of fatigue and sickness, contracted in the hospitals crouded with those
+French prisoners, who, a little before, had ejected them from their
+principal college, at Polosk, after having plundered it of every valuable.
+It would be tedious to insist upon every point; but something I must say on
+the articles of missions and public schools, the two principal scenes of
+their zeal.
+
+With respect to missions, the Jesuits might truly apply to themselves the
+verse,
+
+  Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?
+                                AEN. lib. i.
+
+{187} Their perseverance in this field of zeal was universally admired; it
+secured success during more than two centuries; and the latest missionary
+expeditions of their society proved, that the original spirit was not
+decayed. Whoever had caught it from the institute of Ignatius was a scholar
+without pride; a man disengaged from his own conveniences; indifferent to
+his employment, to country, to climate; submissive to guidance; capable of
+living alone, and of edifying in public; happy in solitude, content in
+tumult; never misplaced. In a word, great purity of manners, cultivated
+minds, knowledge without pretensions, close study without recompence,
+obedience without reasoning though not without reason, love of labour,
+willingness to suffer, and, finally, fervor of zeal; such were the
+qualifications, which Ignatius's discernment directed his successors in
+government to seek, to select, or to form; and it is an acknowledged truth,
+that, at every period of the society, they always found men of this
+description to lead out their sacred expeditions to the four quarters of
+{188} the world. These men planted Christian faith in the extremities of
+the East, in Japan, in the Molucca islands; they announced it in China, in
+the hither and further India, in Ethiopia and Caffraria, &c. Others, in the
+opposite hemisphere, appeared on the snowy wastes of North America; and,
+presently, Hurons were civilized, Canada ceased to be peopled only by
+barbarians. Others, almost in our own days, nothing degenerate, succeeded
+to humanize new hard-featured tribes, even to assemble them in Christian
+churches, in the ungrateful soil of California, to which angry Nature seems
+to have denied almost every necessary for the subsistence of the human
+species. They were but a detachment from the body of their brethren, who,
+at the same time, were advancing, with rapid progress, through Cinaloa,
+among the unknown hordes of savages, who rove through the immense tracts to
+the north of Mexico, which have not yet been trodden by the steps of any
+evangelical herald. Others, again, in greater numbers, from the school of
+Ignatius, with the most inflexible {189} perseverance, amidst every species
+of opposition, continued to gather new nations into the church, to form new
+colonies of civilized cannibals, for the kings of Spain and Portugal, in
+the horrid wilds of Brazil, Maragnon, and Paraguay. Here truly flowed the
+milk and honey of religion and human happiness. Here was realized more than
+philosophy had dared to hope, more than Plato, in his republic, or the
+author of Utopia, had ever ventured to imagine. Here was given the
+demonstration, from experience, that pure religion, steadily practised, is
+the only source of human happiness. The new settlements, called
+_Reductions_, of Brazil and Paraguay, were real fruits of the zeal of the
+Jesuits. Solipsian empires, and gold mines to enrich the society, existed
+only in libels[65].
+
+{190}
+
+The Jesuits were advancing, with gigantic strides, to the very centre of
+South America, they were actually civilizing the Abiponian barbarians, when
+their glorious course was interrupted by the wretched policy of Lisbon and
+Madrid. The missionaries of South America were all seized like felons, and
+shipped off, as so many convicts, to the ports of old Spain, to be still
+farther transported to Corsica, and, finally, to the coasts of the pope's
+states. One of these venerable men, Martin Dobrizhoffer, who had spent
+eighteen years among the South American tribes, has given, in his _Historia
+de Abiponibus_, the best account, that exists, of the field of his arduous
+mission. His work is here mentioned, because it is not unknown in England,
+and his testimony[66] proves the persuasion of the best men at Buenos
+Ayres, in 1767, when the Jesuits were dismissed, that, if they had been at
+all times properly supported, by the courts of Lisbon and Madrid,
+especially {191} against the self interested European settlers, not a
+barbarian, not an infidel, would then have been left in the whole extent of
+South America. "This," says the author, "was boldly advanced from the
+pulpit at Buenos Ares, in the presence of the royal governor, and of a
+thronged auditory, and it was proved with a strength of argument, that
+subdued all doubt, and wrought universal conviction." The impression must
+have been strengthened by the subsequent dissolution of all the
+_Reductions_, in consequence of the inability of the royal officers to
+substitute other missionaries to those, whom they had ejected[67].
+
+Different was the providence of the superiors {192} in the old society, to
+perpetuate the race and regular succession of those wonderful men. If they
+had sent out from Europe subjects already formed to every virtue and every
+science, their virtues and their learning would have been almost useless,
+without the knowledge and practical use of the barbarous idioms of the
+Indian tribes. Every young Jesuit in Europe was first trained, during two
+full years of noviciate, to the exact practice of religious virtues. He was
+next applied, during five years, still in strict domestic discipline, to
+the several studies of poetry, rhetoric, logic, physics, metaphysics,
+natural history, and mathematics. Seven years of preparation qualified
+these proficients to commence schoolmasters, during five or six succeeding
+years, in the several colleges of their respective provinces. It was
+generally at this {193} period of their religious career, that several
+young Jesuits, instead of being employed to teach schools, were detached
+from the several European provinces, to the Asiatic colleges of Goa, or
+Macao, or to the American colleges of Mexico, Buenos Ayres, or Cordova in
+Tucumaw, where, in expectation of priesthood, they made a close study of
+the barbarous languages, which they were afterwards to speak in their
+missions. These were usually selected from the number of those, who had
+spontaneously solicited such a destination; and the number of these pious
+volunteers being always considerable, the succession of missionaries in the
+society of Jesuits could never fail. But it is time to say something of
+their schools.
+
+The education of youth in schools is one of the prominent features of the
+Jesuits' institute. Their founder saw, that the disorders of the world,
+which he wished to correct, spring chiefly from neglect of education. He
+perceived, that the fruits of the other spiritual functions of {194} his
+society would be only temporary, unless he could perpetuate them through
+every rising generation, as it came forward in succession. Every professed
+Jesuit was bound by a special vow, to attend to the instruction of youth;
+and this duty was the peculiar function, the first important mission, of
+the younger members, who were preparing themselves for profession. Even the
+two years of noviciate mainly contributed to the same purpose. They were
+not lost to the sciences, since novices were carefully taught the science
+upon which they all depend. The religious exercises of that first period
+tended to give them that steadiness of character and virtue, without which
+no good is achieved in schools. They then acquired a fondness for
+retirement, a love of regularity, a habit of labour, a disgust of
+dissipation, a custom of serious reflection, docility to advice, a
+sentiment of honour and self-respect, with a fixed love of virtue; every
+thing requisite to support and advance the cultivation of letters and of
+science in future years. It has been already observed, {195} that the
+serious studies, which filled five years after the noviciate, were
+calculated, in conjunction with strict religious discipline, to form them
+for the serious business of conducting a school of boys during the five or
+six years, which were to succeed: and, in the discharge of this duty, they
+were bound to know and to follow, under the direction of a prefect of
+studies in every college, the excellent documents prescribed in the
+institute for masters.
+
+It is not possible in a short compass to enumerate these instructions; but
+the mention of a few may suffice to prove, that nothing was forgotten. The
+object of Ignatius, in charging his society with the management of boys and
+youths, as it is announced in various parts of the institute, was to form
+and perfect their will, their conscience, their morals, their manners,
+their memory, imagination, and reason. Docility is the first virtue
+required in a child: and, to subdue stiff tempers, the remedies prescribed
+in the Jesuits' institute are, impartiality in the {196} master, honourable
+distinctions, and mortifying humiliations, applied with judgment and
+discretion: then, steady attention to maintain the established discipline
+and economy of the school, which is a constant, and therefore a powerful
+check upon the unruly. To secure it, says the text, hope of reward and fear
+of disgrace are more powerful than blows; and, if the latter become
+unavoidable, punishment must never be inflicted with that precipitation,
+which gives to justice an air of violence. In inquiring into trespasses,
+too nice and minute investigation must be avoided, because it inspires
+mistrust. The art of dissembling small faults is often a safe means to
+prevent great ones. Gentle means must always be first employed; and, if
+ever fear and repentance must be impressed, the hand of some indifferent
+person must be called into action; the hand of the master must be used only
+to impress gratitude and respect. If his hand is never to be the instrument
+of pain, his voice must never be the organ of invective. He must employ
+{197} instruction, exhortation, friendly reproach, but never contumelious
+language, haughtiness, and affronts: he must never utter words to boys,
+which would degrade them in the eyes of their companions, or demean them in
+their own. In the distribution of rewards, no distinction must be known,
+but that of merit. The very suspicion of partiality to character, fortune,
+or rank, would frustrate the effect of the rewards bestowed, and provoke
+indocility, jealousy, and disgust, in those who received none. Nothing so
+quickly overturns authority, and withers the fruit of zealous labours, even
+in virtuous masters, as the appearance of undue favour. The masters's equal
+attention is due to all; he must interest himself equally for the progress
+of all; he must never check the activity of any by indifference, much less
+irritate their self-love by contempt.
+
+It were easy to multiply, from the institute, instructions prescribed to
+masters, to insure success in this first part of education, the {198}
+bridling of the rebel will of youth; but Ignatius knew, that these things
+would never be enforced by young masters, who had not learned the art of
+bridling their own. Discipline might bind boys to outward respect, but only
+religion and virtue can make them love the yoke; and no yoke is ever
+carried with perseverance unless it be borne with pleasure. Religion is the
+most engaging and most powerful restraint upon rising and growing passions;
+and to imprint it deeply in the heart was the main business of the Jesuit
+schools. The rest was accessory and subordinate. The principles of religion
+were there instilled, while the elements of learning were unfolded. Maxims
+of the Gospel were taught together with profane truths; the pride of
+science was tempered by the modesty of piety; the master's labour was
+directed, as much to form the conscience, as to improve the memory, and
+regulate the imagination of his disciples. The institute directed him to
+instil a profound respect for God; to begin and end his lessons by prayer;
+to cherish the {199} piety of the devout; to avail himself of it as a means
+to attract the thoughtless to imitation; and, by a special rule, he was
+charged to instruct his scholars in all duties of religion by weekly
+catechisms, carefully adapted to their capacity. The ecclesiastical
+historian, Fleury, remarks, in the preface to his historical catechism,
+that, if the youth of his age was incomparably better instructed than the
+youth of past ages, the obligation was owing principally to the catechisms
+of the Jesuits' school. He had heard them during the six years of his
+education in Clermont college.
+
+Ignatius places herein the capital point of education: and he well knew,
+that where the grand motives of religion are not employed, an assembly of
+men will commonly be a collection of vice, especially in unexperienced
+youth, when growing passions always seek communication, in order to
+authorise themselves by example. To this point, then, he directs the rules
+of his subjects employed in education; to {200} this he calls the attention
+of every professor, the vigilance of every prefect of studies, of every
+master, the solicitude of every rector, the inspection of every provincial.
+The wise framers of the _Ratio Studiorum_, which is adopted into the
+institute, explaining his ideas still farther, require every master to
+study the temper and character of his pupils; to distract their passions by
+application; to fire their little hearts with laudable emulation. For this,
+they must encourage the diffident and modest, curb the forward and
+presumptuous: for this they must assign to merit alone those scholastic
+appellations of dignity, those titles of _emperor_ and _praetor_, puerile
+indeed in themselves, but not less important to boys than are the sounds of
+titles, and colours of ribbands to men. On the same principle, in much
+frequented colleges, each class was divided into two rival classes, usually
+distinguished by the opposite banners of Rome and Carthage, which mutually
+dreaded, provoked, and defied each other, in classical duels, or in general
+trials of skill, each whetting his {201} memory on the edge of that of his
+rival; and then would often flow those precious tears of emulation, which
+watered rising genius, expanding it to fertility. Hence, again, are
+prescribed those public and solemn annual rewards, distributed with pomp
+and show, which reduced the self-love of youth to the love of virtue; which
+enamoured them of study by the prospect of success, and, by raising a
+desire of pleasing, really taught them how to please.
+
+The institute proceeds to remove from youth every species of bad example.
+It directs the prefect and the master how to dissolve growing friendships,
+that might be dangerous; it forbids the public explanation of books, or of
+single passages, which might mislead active imaginations; it ordains a
+scrutiny of all books, that come into the pupil's use; it charges the
+master to watch every trespass against the rules of civility and good
+manners. Falsehood and detraction, swearing, and foul words, are to be
+quickly corrected, or not tolerated within the {202} college. It is, again,
+the master's particular duty to form the manners of his pupils to decency,
+modesty, and politeness; to correct their errors in language, their faults
+in pronunciation, their awkwardness in gestures, their coarseness in
+behaviour, not less than to cultivate their memory and regulate their
+imagination. For this purpose the institute, without neglecting modern
+languages, prescribes, for the justest reasons, the study of Latin and
+Greek, in the purest models of Athens and ancient Rome. It joins to these
+the study of history, and its concomitants, geography, chronology, and
+mythology; and all this must precede the introduction of youth into the
+regions of eloquence and poetry, where sportive imagination may amuse and
+feed itself for a while with brilliant images and expressive language: but
+the institute teaches how to reduce all this to the standard of reason and
+sound judgment, by the succeeding study of philosophy and mathematics; and
+these, in their turn, are the preparation for the deeper discussions of
+theology, which lifts the {203} soul out of the narrow sphere of human
+science, and enables the mind, and, still more, the heart, to make
+excursions into the immensity of God.
+
+The short sketch, which is here presented, of education among the Jesuits,
+is enough to convince us, that no system was ever more solid, more
+calculated to produce eminent men, in every department of civil and
+ecclesiastical life. Undoubtedly it did produce a succession of them during
+two hundred years; and it thus verified the decisive sentence of Bacon, _Ad
+paedagogicam quod attinet, brevissimum foret dictu. Consule scholas
+Jesuitarum_[68]. Perhaps the real value of the system is still better
+proved by the miserable state of degradation, into which public education
+and public morals have sunk in catholic countries, since its utter
+suppression.
+
+{204}
+
+But the founder of the Jesuits is not satisfied with suggesting what is
+right; he provides, what is still more necessary, proper masters to enforce
+it. He gives them two years of only spiritual, and five others of spiritual
+and literary education, to train them to their important task. With this he
+trusts, that their conduct will be irreproachable, that they will be worthy
+to be trusted with the grand interests of letters and of morals. He expects
+them to be docile, modest, and willing to be guided by their elders, who
+have successfully completed their course. They must be young enough to gain
+the confidence of children, and firm enough to command respect. To animate
+them to assiduity in duty, they must be provided with all necessary books;
+they must be stimulated to zeal by the prospect of _God's greater glory_;
+they must, therefore, be perfectly weaned from self-interest; they are
+required to yield continual service to persons, from whom they must receive
+none; they must impart virtue and knowledge, but never sell {205} either;
+they must inspire gratitude, and never profit by it; they must prove
+themselves deserving of every thing, and accept nothing[69].
+
+The society, in every period of its existence, possessed, in every country,
+many excellent and distinguished professors and masters, in every science
+which it professed to teach; and the {206} uniformity and steadiness of
+their education raised the bulk of its masters much above the rate of
+decent mediocrity. It is apparent, that, in the conducting of public
+education throughout a large kingdom, a body of men, well compacted
+together, and properly trained to the work, must possess superior
+advantages; and the world has long since agreed, that no other body of men
+ever did, or could furnish so many able and useful teachers, as the society
+of Jesuits constantly presented for the public service. There were, no
+doubt, elsewhere, masters, able to balance, perhaps to eclipse, the
+reputation of those of the society; but these men were seldom found, except
+in the first chairs of great universities; they did not diffuse learning
+throughout a kingdom, and the succession of them was not uniformly
+continued. The Jesuits were universally spread throughout a country, and
+every town had a chance of enjoying their best masters. Even in the first
+universities it has been allowed, that the Jesuits' schools were of use to
+the other colleges, and reciprocally {207} received great advantages from
+them. The spirit of laudable emulation stimulated both to generous
+exertions, and the general interests of learning were thereby promoted.
+
+During the five or six years which the Jesuits employed in teaching, many
+of them obtained renown, and all, it may be presumed, had acquired the
+ready use of the Latin language; had discovered the bent of their talents;
+and had attained maturity of judgment and love of application. At the end
+of their course these masters, aged from twenty-five to thirty years, were
+now once more remanded to the benches, and applied, during four years, to
+the study of theology, under able professors, in the principal city and
+college of their province; thus forming a perpetual colony of forty or
+fifty mature and improved students, such as rival colleges could seldom
+equal. "At Paris," says cardinal de Maury, "the great college of the
+Jesuits was a central point, which attracted the attention of all the best
+writers, and of persons {208} of distinction in every rank. It was a kind
+of permanent literary tribunal, which the celebrated Piron, in his emphatic
+language, used to style _La chambre ardente des reputations literaires_;
+always dreaded by men of letters, as the principal source and focus of
+public opinion in the capital[70]." What the cardinal asserts of Paris, was
+equally true of Rome, Vienna, Lisbon, and other great cities, which
+possessed the colleges of higher studies of the society. I conclude with
+remarking, that, if any part of what is prescribed in the institute had
+been retrenched from the education of Jesuits, their society would not have
+deserved such commendations from Piron and cardinal de Maury[71].
+
+If the outlines of education, which have been {209} here traced from the
+book of the Jesuits' institute[72], do not win approbation, they may be
+presented to the reader, at least, as an object of curiosity. Serious men
+will, perhaps, think them more deserving of attention than are many of the
+ephemeral vagaries, which modern adventurers in the art of training youth
+daily obtrude upon the public. The Jesuits' system is recommended by the
+experimental success of two centuries; and, whether the plan was originally
+conceived, or only adopted and methodised, by Ignatius and his followers,
+certain it is, that, from the close of the council of Trent to the opening
+of the Gallic revolution, the main principles, on which it rests, even the
+practical details of it, with little variation, pervaded the education of
+the catholic clergy in all distinguished seminaries, whether directed by
+Jesuits or by others; and they may, therefore, be regarded as {210} the
+source of all the virtue and learning which adorned the catholic church in
+that period, and which the Gallic revolutioners were sworn to destroy. If
+these antichristian conspirators first doomed the Jesuits to annihilation,
+it was because their schools were widely diffused through Europe, and were
+marked by them as hotbeds of every thing which they chose to term
+fanaticism, bigotry, and superstition; that is to say, zeal, faith, and
+devotion. These were to be extirpated, to make room for fanaticism,
+bigotry, and superstition of another kind; those of equality, reason, and
+philosophy. And mark with what avidity they seized upon the spurious maxim,
+which had been attributed to the Jesuits, "that it was lawful to do evil,
+that their expected good might come:" falsehood, forgery, blasphemy, false
+witness, murder, regicide; every crime that a bad heart could suggest, a
+perverted head direct, or a venal arm perpetrate, was resorted to, to
+attain that _summum bonum_, jacobinism. They had before them the _Monita
+Secreta_ and the Institute, and they chose the {211} former for the basis
+of their constitutions. I need not repeat the infamous doctrines collected
+in that forgery, which was published at the end of the pamphlet, that
+induced me to undertake to write these pages, and of which Clericus has
+given us an account in the following Letters; suffice it to say, by way of
+contrast, that horrors are there piled high one upon another, and said to
+be the secret code of regulations of men, who profess to take the institute
+of Ignatius for their guide, a code replete with piety and virtue. I have
+already said enough to silence the remark, that men may profess only and
+not act, for I have shown, that, if ever men acted up to their professions,
+the Jesuits have; but it will be an agreeable task to put some of the
+points of the institute, which have been distorted, into the view in which
+truth requires they should be seen.
+
+First, let us glance an eye over the contents of this institute. It
+contains, not only what the founder wrote, but likewise all the papal {212}
+bulls and briefs granted to the society; all the decrees and canons of the
+several congregations, which form laws in the society; several
+instructions, precepts, and ordinations, issued by different generals, and
+adopted by general congregations, for universal practice; the general
+_Ratio Studiorum_; the privileges granted to the society by the holy see;
+the particular rules prescribed for every office in the society, and for
+every class of men in it, as priests, missionaries, preachers, students,
+&c. The groundwork of all this is what the founder himself wrote; _viz._ an
+_Examen Generale_ to be proposed to candidates for admittance;
+_Constitutiones Societatis Jesu_; an epistle _De Virtute Obedientiae_; a
+book of _Spiritual Exercises_; and, finally, many of the particular rules
+of offices. The Prague edition of the Institute, anno 1757, two small folio
+volumes, lies before me, and I have taken a good deal of fruitless trouble
+to find out some propositions denounced by the enemies of the Jesuits,
+without reference to the page or chapter. I have found nothing but what
+reflects {213} honour on the code. The objects of it are the glory of God,
+the general good of man, and the preservation of the society. In pursuance
+of the first of these, the members make vows of poverty, chastity, and
+obedience; they mortify their senses, renounce worldly honours, and preach
+the Gospel. The means they use for the second consist of example, prayer,
+works of charity, pious publications, preaching, educating youth, and
+sending forth missions. For the third object, their preservation, they have
+appropriate rules of union, discipline, reputation, freedom from party, and
+moderation[73].
+
+Such is the code which has been so misrepresented. It is impossible, within
+the bounds of a pamphlet, and, indeed, I have already stretched into the
+latitude of a book, to give an adequate notion of it, and to combat the
+opinions which have gone abroad against it. These opinions {214} are so
+many adopted prejudices, the refutation of which is completely given in the
+_Apologie de l'Institut_, to which I must refer the reader, who will find
+in it many extracts from the institute itself; and I shall here briefly
+notice the vow of obedience, and the imputed despotism of the general,
+about which so much has been said.
+
+"Their blind obedience! To be as unresisting as _a dead body_, or as
+tractable as _a stick_ in the hands of an old man![74]." This language,
+taken disjointedly, is among the bugbears held up by the new conspirators
+against the Jesuits. It must surely be allowed, that obedience is necessary
+in every institution, where training the mind is an object, and the
+institute is not reprehensible for excluding wilful argumentation, while it
+allows every one the use of his reason. _Blind obedience_ is not required
+for the commission of a crime, but in duties known to be pious {215} and
+moral, in actions evidently laudable. Nor is the expression of the text
+_caeca obedientia_, but _caeca quadam obedientia_[75]. The rule is for the
+better training of the young and the inexperienced; and what school does
+not proceed upon it to the extent required by the institute, which excepts
+whatever is criminal, or morally wrong? It literally prescribes, that this
+_kind_ of _blind obedience_ shall, nevertheless, be conformable to justice
+and to charity; _omnibus in rebus ad quas potest cum charitate se
+obedientia extendere_[76]. Nay, the order of the superior is not only to be
+examined, to see that it is free from a capital sin, but from any sin
+whatever; _in omnibus quae a superiore disponuntur ubi definiri non possit
+(quemadmodum dictum est) aliquod peccati genus intercedere_[77]. In a word,
+discussion is not forbidden by the institute, but in cases where it is
+evident that there is no sin; {216} _ubi non cerneretur peccatum_[78]; a
+doctrine continually repeated on this head, _quemadmodum dictum est_, that
+is, _in quibus nullum manifestum est peccatum_[79]. Where now is the horror
+of this obedience? It will seem a paradox to say, that the rigour of it
+arises from the mildness of the Jesuit government: but it is not less the
+fact; for, as all violent measures and corporal punishments are excluded
+from the society, a prompt moral obedience is absolutely necessary to its
+existence. It thus becomes an amiable, as well as an indispensable law.
+
+But the despotism of the general? The obedience, which the Jesuits owe
+their general, is the same as that which they pay to their ordinary
+superiors. It flows from the same source, and tends to the same end. Having
+demonstrated the slavery of it to be a chimera, the despotism of the
+general naturally vanishes with {217} it. The nature of the society
+required, that it should be under a single chief: to have given to separate
+houses independent chiefs would have destroyed the great objects depending
+upon a union of councils. It was no cenobitical order devoted chiefly to
+working out their own salvation; but one, whose members were to be spread
+over the whole world, to promote the glory of God and the good of man. The
+institute, however, takes great care, that the chief should not be a
+despot: it gives him no slaves, nor even subjects, but friends, children,
+and counsellors[80]; mildness is the sceptre it bestows upon him, and
+charity the throne[81]; it {218} equally prohibits the superior to govern
+by violence and the inferior to obey through fear[82]. The general is
+elected by the whole society, who first swear to choose only him, whom they
+believe to be the most worthy of the office[83]. There is nothing arbitrary
+or changeable in the {219} authority of the general: it is subjected by the
+institute to stable and invariable laws, and his duties are minutely
+prescribed. If he deviates from them, it provides for his removal[84]. Far
+from being a despot, he is not even exempted from the superintendance of a
+monitor chosen by the society, who observes his conduct, tells him of his
+faults, points out his duties, and is consequently compelled not to excuse
+him in any point[85]. In spiritual affairs, the general is subject to the
+pope; in temporal matters, to the government under which he lives; and, in
+what {220} concerns himself personally, or the society solely, to a general
+meeting of the order[86]. Though elected for life, he may be deposed for
+several reasons stated in the institute; and the same hands that clothed
+him with power may strip him of it[87]. It has been said, that the motive
+for appointing a single chief was the facility it offers for promoting more
+certainly the ends of ambition. The institute strongly condemns ambition in
+individuals, and still more strongly in the general[88]. One great {221}
+charge against the power of the general is, that his authority may injure
+that of sovereigns, by withdrawing their subjects from their obedience: on
+the contrary, he is expressly forbidden, by the institute, to take from a
+state any Jesuit whatever, without the knowledge of the sovereign[89]. The
+annulling of contracts is another source of abuse, founded on a mistaken
+passage in the institute, where it is said; "Although the general, by his
+open letters to particular superiors, confers on them an ample power in
+that respect, yet that power may be restricted and limited by private
+letters." This passage has no reference to contracts, and relates only to
+the power given openly to local superiors to dismiss improper persons; and
+there can be no objection to the private limiting of that power. But the
+most obnoxious charge of all is, that the general of the Jesuits maintains
+spies everywhere, for the purpose of diving into the secrets of courts, and
+into the {222} affairs of private families. The institute contains a rule
+directly the reverse of this assertion, a rule by which he is expressly
+prohibited from meddling in affairs that do not concern the society, even
+under any pretext of piety or religion[90].
+
+After all, then, the general of the Jesuits is not such a monster as he has
+been painted, and it is absurd to suppose, that a learned and sensible old
+man, who, about to give an account of his ministry to God, has but a few
+years to fill the office, should consider it as the spring of every kind of
+crime; it is absurd to suppose, that the brethren of the order, who have
+sacrificed every thing on earth to the hope of finding under the empire of
+the institute the greatest perfection of the Christian character, should
+believe, that they are obliged, by virtue of that very institute, to commit
+the greatest sins man is capable of; and it is absurd to {223} suppose,
+that, if a general were mad enough to abuse his power, there would not be
+found a pope wise enough, or Jesuits virtuous enough to depose him,
+conformably to the laws of the church and of the institute.
+
+Formerly, when the Jesuits had powerful protectors, the practice was to
+turn them into ridicule; now, that they have powerful enemies, the object
+is to stigmatize them with every vice. Nothing is more difficult, or more
+delicate, than to parry ridicule; but, to refute abuse, one has only to
+expose it.
+
+In the present state of the continental powers, it seems hardly possible,
+that the society of Jesuits should recover its ancient importance, but
+their destruction must ever be lamented; and, since their unrelenting
+enemies have tempted the public curiosity to inquire into their history,
+this chapter shall be closed with a brief account of the final catastrophe
+of that small portion of their body, which for two {224} hundred years was
+connected with England, by the common bonds of country, language, and
+blood.
+
+About the year 1590, the English Jesuits obtained, from the liberality of
+Philip II of Spain, the foundation of their principal college at St. Omer;
+and, soon after, the bishop of that city conferred upon them an ancient
+abbey, with its demesnes, situated in the neighbouring small town of
+Watten. A few years later, they acquired the foundation of their college at
+Liege, from Maximilian the elector of Bavaria, and likewise a smaller
+settlement in the city of Ghent. In these several houses, they applied
+themselves to the education of British catholic youth, and to the formation
+of missionaries. In 1762, the two first-mentioned of these establishments
+were subjected to confiscation by the unsparing _arrets_ of the parliament
+of Paris. The inhabitants could obtain no mercy, on the consideration of
+being foreigners admitted on the public faith; they were all ejected, {225}
+without the smallest allowance for their support, or even for their return
+to their native soil. They presented themselves to the Austrian government
+of the Netherlands, at Bruxelles; they were admitted under an _octroi_, the
+most solemn act of that government, and they established themselves in the
+city of Bruges. In 1773, on the appearance of pope Clement XIV's
+destructive brief, they were once more unmercifully pillaged, in despite of
+the public faith, pledged in the _octroi_; and here the fangs of fiscal
+avarice were sharpened to an uncommon edge, because it was the persuasion
+of that despotic government, that, being Jesuits, they deserved no pity,
+and, being English, they must be rich. At the same period, their large
+college at Liege was stript of all its income, by the two courts of Munich
+and Rome, and the inmates of the house were also here turned adrift,
+without any allowance for their personal subsistence. In this utter
+distress, a few of these persecuted men, who remained at Liege, not quite
+dispirited by their calamities, were encouraged by the prince {226} bishop
+of Liege, to form, within the old college, a school and a seminary of
+priests. The plan was sanctioned by a brief of pope Pius VI; they found
+friends, and unremitting labour and industry during twenty years advanced
+their work to a degree of consistency, which merited the approbation and
+confidence of the public. But all this was of no avail. Utter destruction
+was to be their doom. In 1794, when the French armies, by one general
+sweep, overturned, in the Low Countries, every thing that related to the
+religion of Jesus Christ, they were finally dislodged and scattered; their
+house and all their valuables were left to the disposal of those outrageous
+freebooters; waggon-loads of their best books were converted into wadding
+for the cannon; their mathematical and optical cabinet was pillaged; they
+retired in sorrow, each to seek a refuge, with hardly a hope of seeing
+better days. Thus terminated the English province of the society of Jesus.
+A few of these ancient men, who have weathered the whole storm, are still
+alive, {227} comforting their old age with the late public testimony of the
+head of the church, that they deserved a better fate. Having availed
+themselves of the indulgence of the British government, on leaving the
+Netherlands they sought an asylum in their own country. They here subsist,
+in the security of conscious innocence, fearless of the prejudices and
+malice of a few unprovoked foes, who know not how to harrass them but by
+the old weapons of misrepresentation and slander. They have pledged their
+allegiance to their king and country, in the comprehensive oath of 1791;
+they meddle not with general or county politics; _they seek no offices of
+state_, that remaining stumbling block in the way of the catholic nobility
+and gentry; they attend solely to their own professional concerns; and, as
+peaceable and loyal subjects, they may justly expect protection for their
+persons and for their property. Friends of the government and of the
+country, friends of monarchy, friends of public tranquillity, friends of
+order and {228} subordination, friends of religion, friends of morality,
+friends of letters, shall they not be protected? Ignorance, prejudice, and
+passion, shall not prevail against such men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{229}
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    _Character of Pombal. Summary Observations, and a brief notice of the
+    tendency and danger of Education independent of Religion._
+
+The success of the old conspiracy against the Jesuits will not be wondered
+at, when we reflect upon the character of the age in which it was formed,
+and on the means that were used to mature it. Ignorance was the lot of the
+generality of men: despotism pervaded courts, and tools were never wanting
+to shape events to the will of the powerful. Of the parliaments, the
+university, and of the Jansenists, enough has been said to show the
+inveteracy and malignity with which they carried on their unjust
+persecutions of the society, and to expose the {230} causes of their
+conduct; but, in the mention which has occasionally been made of the
+Portuguese minister Carvalho, marquis of Pombal, the great persecutor of
+the Jesuits, too little has been said to account for his hatred of them; I
+will, therefore, here, make him the subject of a few pages.
+
+During the reign of John V, the Jesuits were in high favour at the court of
+Lisbon. That king expired in the arms of the famous Malagrida. Carvalho was
+then a real or pretended friend of the society. The Jesuits, whom king John
+consulted, recommended him, with little forecast, for the embassies of
+London and Vienna, and, afterwards, to his successor, Joseph I, as prime
+minister. He soon, however, betrayed his jealousy of the power and credit
+of the Jesuits; and he determined to effect their ruin. The first
+opportunity of persecuting them arose from the treaty with Spain, for an
+exchange of lands and fixing new boundaries in South America, the motive of
+which we have {231} already seen. The disorder, that ensued among the
+Indians, the marquis imputed to the influence and ambition of the Jesuits;
+whence arose the absurd fable of the Jesuit king Nicolas, and of the
+project and attempt to usurp the dominion of South America, which, with
+great industry and many foul arts, he propagated all over Europe. The
+insurrection of the Paraguay Indians is usually called the first cause of
+Pombal's hatred of the Jesuits. In his ambitious views of engrossing all
+authority and power, he dreaded opposition from the king's brother, don
+Pedro, who was greatly attached to the order. A dispensation had been
+obtained from Rome to allow don Pedro to marry his niece, and Pombal, with
+confidence of success, endeavoured to prevent the marriage. He strove to
+inspire the king with jealousy of his brother, suggested various reasons
+why the princess ought to be given to some foreign prince, and recommended
+William duke of Cumberland in preference to all others. The king consulting
+his confessor, F. Moreira, that {232} Jesuit prevailed upon his master to
+reject the proposal. On that occasion, the marquis vowed vengeance, not
+only against the prince and F. Moreira, but against the whole order of
+Jesuits. Another grand cause of his rage against the society was but too
+well known to the missionaries. The greatest obstacle to the success of
+their missions among the Indians had always been the prevalence and
+violence of the rich European settlers, and more frequently still of the
+royal governors. They had often succeeded, by their credit at Madrid and
+Lisbon, to protect the poor Indians from personal outrage and slavery, yet
+it was always a difficult struggle. Pombal had made his brother, who was
+called Xavier Mendoza, governor general of Maragnon, in the Brazils, and
+never had the country before known a tyrant so despotic and outrageous. The
+pious queen dowager, Mariana of Austria, greatly favoured the missions.
+When any Jesuits sailed for Brazil, she regularly exhorted them to attend
+seriously to the propagation of religion, and directed them to inform {233}
+her exactly of whatever obstacles they might experience from the king's
+officers, and the Portuguese settlers, promising redress for their injuries
+and concealment of their names. In full confidence of her protection the
+missionaries often preferred serious complaints against Xavier Mendoza, and
+the wrongs of the poor Indians were frequently redressed. The minister's
+anger at these accusations of his brother, of which he could not discover
+the authors, almost drove him mad: but the queen dying, he contrived to get
+possession of her private papers, and discovered the channel of
+intelligence. His increased rage against the missionaries and Jesuits in
+general may be imagined. The conduct of the Jesuits, after the earthquake
+in 1755, afforded him fresh grounds of enmity. They spread themselves
+through the city and the adjacent country, everywhere inviting the people
+to repentance. Their sermons were everywhere attended by multitudes, their
+confessionals were thronged. Penitential processions were instituted, the
+city was edified. In their {234} discourses, they attributed the public
+calamity to a special visitation of Divine Providence, with the design of
+chastising the increasing depravity of morals in all ranks, and inviting
+them to repentance. The court was pleased with the exertions of the
+Jesuits. The king, in particular, thanked their provincial, and ordered the
+repairs of their professed house to be undertaken and defrayed by the royal
+treasury. This mark of royal favour sorely mortified the minister: he
+complained of the fanaticism of the Jesuits, especially of Malagrida, who
+had printed a discourse on the subject of the earthquake, which was read
+and highly commended by the king. His majesty had signified his intention
+of making a spiritual retreat, or exercise, for a week, under the direction
+of that celebrated father. The marquis, after innumerable other artifices
+to discredit the Jesuits, and their doctrine of an interfering Providence,
+assured the king, that a conspiracy was formed to overturn the government;
+that, unless Malagrida were withdrawn, a public sedition would ensue. The
+{235} king, intimidated, at length consented to his removal; but the crafty
+minister, dreading the resentment of the whole city, applied, the same day,
+to the pope's nuncio, and stating the king's authority and positive
+request, prevailed upon him to order Malagrida to retire from Lisbon to
+Setubal. He then forbade processions, or other marks of public penance and
+devotion, publicly alleging, that the misfortune of the city was to be
+attributed solely to natural causes; and by these and other means he
+succeeded in keeping the weak king in constant dread of imaginary plots,
+conspiracies, and insurrections. The king was soon completely subdued;
+every thing was abandoned to the disposal of the minister, his authority
+and power became absolute, and he soon displayed his real character in such
+a series of despotic and tyrannical deeds as the annals of mankind cannot
+equal. These may be found fully detailed in the four volumes of his life,
+printed at Florence in 1785; in _Memoires du Marquis de Pombal_; in
+_Anecdotes du Ministere du Marquis de Pombal_; and in various other {236}
+publications. His power with the king expired in 1777, when he was
+imprisoned, impeached, and convicted, by the unanimous voices of his
+judges, of enormous crimes, deserving capital punishment. The queen was
+prevailed upon, by the intercession of some of the foreign courts, to remit
+the sentence: he was only banished to Pombal, where he died in 1783. "Who
+would think," said the abbe Garnier, in his funeral oration for Joseph I,
+"that one man, by abusing the confidence and authority of a good king,
+could, for the space of twenty years, silence every tongue, close every
+mouth, shut up every heart, hold truth captive, lead falsehood in triumph,
+efface every trace of justice, force respect to be paid to iniquity and
+barbarity, and enslave public opinion from one end of Europe to the other?"
+Such was Sebastian Joseph Carvalho, marquis of Pombal, the enemy of the
+Jesuits, and prime promoter of their destruction. The very enmity of such a
+man is a strong negative proof of innocence and virtue. {237}
+
+But the cry was up; the society was to be destroyed; envy, hatred, and
+malice led the chace; atheism, deism, and philosophy, with their
+attendants, ridicule and sophistry, joined in the pursuit, and the victim
+was hunted down. The founders, or rather the finishers and embellishers of
+the modern school of reason, could not endure men, who preached doctrines
+and maintained principles so opposite to their own new-fangled systems.
+They knew, that respect for revealed truths, and reverence for established
+authority, the two objects of their detestation, were the main pivots on
+which the whole system of the education of the Jesuits turned. _Deum
+timete, regem honorificate_, "Fear God and honour the king," was their
+adopted maxim: religion and loyalty were never disunited by them, and the
+revolutionary conspirators had determined to subvert both. These everywhere
+opened schools of philosophy, as they affected to term it; that is, schools
+of impiety and irreligion; where God, his mysteries and his laws, were
+cited to the tribunal of proud and depraved {238} reason; where it was a
+rule to reject what was not comprehended, to ridicule whatever checked and
+restrained youthful passions, to begin by examining every thing
+incoherently, and to end by believing nothing. Infinite were the arts by
+which these odious maxims were infused; and they were all sweetened by
+previous lessons of libertinism and dissoluteness, which soiled the
+imagination by the most obscene productions, and corrupted the heart by the
+most abominable maxims. They were multiplied under the titles of poems,
+histories, dissertations, romances; they imposed upon the simple by
+affected doubts of the most established truths; by impudent assertions,
+that religion is now abandoned to the weak, the ignorant, the vulgar. The
+interest of vice soon inveigled their disciples to re-echo the cry, that
+lessons, drawn from belief and fear of the Supreme Being, are no more than
+the accents of fanaticism, superstition, and bigotry[91]. {239} Jesuits
+were the avowed heralds of these _degrading_ lessons, they were not
+philosophers. "No," says D'Alembert, one of the fathers of the new system,
+"the Jesuits have been teaching {240} philosophy two hundred years, and
+they have never yet had a philosopher in their body."
+
+In the meaning of these writers, the charge must be fully admitted. Never
+did Jesuits harbour within their walls the maxims or the doctrines of
+modern sophisters. They acknowledged no philosophy, that appeared to
+infringe revelation or morals; but not on that account did they forego a
+modest claim to the title of philosophers. Those among them, who best
+deserved it, were actively employed in detecting, exposing, and refuting
+the fallacies of the modern Voltairian school; and, without affecting the
+peculiarity of the name, they were satisfied with being philosophers in the
+ancient acceptation of the term; that is, while they inculcated respect for
+divine revelation, and for established authority, they never ceased, during
+two hundred years, to furnish a succession of professors, who unfolded the
+principles of natural and of moral knowledge. And what branch of human
+{241} science was banished from their schools? Their public lessons might
+be called _elementary_ by deep proficients; but they were accommodated to
+the capacity of the bulk of their youthful auditors; their object was to
+awaken in them the love of science, to lay the foundation on which the
+edifice of deep knowledge was afterwards to rise. It is allowed, that the
+most distinguished scholars in every branch, in past times, generally had
+been trained in the Jesuits' schools; and can it be said, with truth, that
+none of the masters, who had taught them, ever rose to eminence; that none
+of them were philosophers? That they never affected to assume the title is
+allowed: their philosophy was more circumspect. On their first principle
+they accepted, and they taught others to accept, without hesitation, the
+oracles of the church of Christ; they never blushed for their faith, or, as
+it was miscalled, their credulity. They believed sublime truths, that
+surpassed comprehension, because they feared God, who attests them, and
+knew that he cannot deceive. {242} Fixed in this first principle, they
+conceived no incongruity in joining to it eager researches into the secrets
+of nature, steady pursuit of improvement in every human science. If
+eminence in these justly confers the title of _philosopher_, it is strange,
+that the doctors of the new antichristian school should have overlooked the
+names of innumerable Jesuits in every branch of science, who were respected
+as philosophers, until faith in divine revelation was reckoned to
+depreciate all literary merit. It would be tedious to rehearse the
+multitude of names, which might be adduced; but I must observe, that the
+succession of them was never discontinued; and that, in the very last state
+of the society, there were men among them revered and consulted by the most
+eminent professors and academicians, who disdained to be mere disciples of
+Voltaire and D'Alembert. The best mathematicians of Italy bowed to the
+names of Ricati and Lecchi. The most eminent astronomers frequented the
+observatories of the Jesuits at Rome, Florence, and Milan, directed by the
+fathers Boscovich, {243} Ximenes, and La Grange. Fathers Meyer and Hall
+were celebrated through Germany, and the Polish Jesuit Poczobult, the royal
+astronomer at Wilno, was known wherever astronomy was cultivated. The
+celebrated M. La Lande, and our own astronomer, Dr. Maskelyne, did not
+disdain his correspondence. La Lande, in particular, in his writings,
+mentions these Jesuit philosophers with honour.
+
+It is the remark of M. Chateaubriand[92], that, without any prejudice to
+other literary societies, the Jesuits were truly styled _Gens de Lettres_,
+because the whole circle of sciences was more or less cultivated among
+them. It was a rare case to meet with a Jesuit devoid of scientific
+knowledge. Their reputation, in this point of view, contributed much to the
+esteem in which the society was formerly held, before the strange
+concurrence of causes, which has not been hitherto explained, had operated
+upon the {244} catholic princes to discard them, and, in so doing, to open
+volcanoes beneath their thrones.
+
+The destruction of the Jesuits was, literally, the destruction of that
+education, in catholic countries, by which order was established on its
+best and surest foundation, the belief of future rewards and punishments,
+and the conviction, that man was on earth but a transient being, whose
+chief object was to work out his salvation and eternal happiness in another
+world; a conviction, that could only be impressed upon the mind by the
+truths of revelation. It is no part of my object here to enter into a
+dissertation upon the comparative excellencies and defects of religious
+systems; but I maintain, that the distinguishing faculty of comprehending
+religious subjects, and the disposition to be influenced by them,
+interwoven in the nature of man, are proofs, that it is intended by God
+that he should be principally and generally influenced by religious
+motives; and that morality, with all its beauty, to be valuable, must
+originate in {245} that source. Let even temperate philosophers say what
+they will of morality, independent of religion, there is one striking
+advantage to states arising from the latter, which the former cannot yield.
+Contentment and resignation are the fruits of religion; insulated morality
+generates discontent, and has a perpetual tendency to doubt the justice of
+the inequality of conditions in this life; very naturally too, if the short
+race of it be all to which our hopes and fears can extend. There is also a
+gradation in morality; there is a confined and a _refined_ morality. _Suum
+cuique tribuitur_ is a maxim of confined morality; the _refined_ moralist
+is a cosmopolite; and, still more refined, he denies the rights of _meum_
+and _tuum_; and the government that suffers one man to enjoy more than
+another is an unjust government, consequently man ought to seek a just one,
+and so we have the revolutionary system. It is only religion, it is only
+the Christian religion, which can reconcile morality to the state of man.
+This is the beautiful morality which binds him in social order, {246} which
+gives to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and, in securing to every man the
+rights he has obtained of property, calls upon him to rectify the
+selfishness of corrupted nature; to do as he would be done by, to love his
+brother as himself, and still farther to assimilate himself to his Master
+and to his God, by loving his enemies. Divine morality! which could have
+flowed only from a divine source! Divine legislation! dictated by God
+himself! It is unfortunate, that the nature of man will not permit the
+spirit, and even the outward forms, of a religion so adapted to the actual
+condition of the human species to be universal; and, that the different
+views taken of the text, by the variance of the human understanding, should
+diverge into incongruous systems, and excite religious dissentions. But,
+however this may be deplored, it is still more deplorable, that it should
+ever enter into the mind of man to establish systems of education, in which
+that which should be the foundation of it is totally excluded from it; that
+the end of knowledge should be separated {247} from the means of it; that
+the rudiments of instruction should be devoted solely to the acquisition of
+worldly arts, of which the operation is to be left to the direction of
+ignorance and selfishness. It is astonishing, with the experience men have
+so lately and so dearly gained, that there can be found one to approve of a
+system, in this country, the archetype of which has desolated Europe and
+ruined France. In attributing the explosion of the French revolution to the
+deistical and atheistical philosophers, I do not hesitate to attribute the
+long continuation of it to the change that took place in the forms of
+education; to the universities of Buonaparte[93], to the confining of men's
+interests to {248} the duration of life. In this country, there is a system
+in full operation, and patronized by some of the first characters of the
+state, by which a very large portion of the people will, in a few years,
+consist of persons able to read, write, and keep accounts, who will have no
+knowledge, or an erroneous one, of the duties and sanctions of religion,
+and whose morality will consequently be dependent on their reasoning
+faculties; and I am very much mistaken if those faculties will not lead to
+similar conceptions and similar effects as those produced by the reasoning
+faculties of 1788 and 1789. This opinion cannot be mistaken for one of
+intolerance. I think it would have been happier had the whole nation been
+of one accord in every point of religion; and I see, in the church of
+England, sufficient inducements to have restrained minds, sensible of the
+danger of innovation, from making a few points of mysterious doctrines a
+plea for separating from her; but while I say this, I am far from thinking
+that men should be compelled into modes of worship, {249} I am only sorry
+to see them dissenting. I am an advocate for the toleration of
+_conscientious_ scruples; but there is one thing which I think no
+government ought to tolerate, and that is public schools openly professing
+to banish religious instruction; for they must prove seminaries of
+malcontents and democrats. The luxury and aristocracy of a few well
+educated rich atheists and deists afford no objection; it is of the low and
+of the indigent that these schools are formed, of persons who may be
+rendered the most valuable or the most pernicious part of the community.
+_Homo sum_: he is not a man, who can be an enemy to the mental improvement
+of his fellow creatures. The ignorance of the lower classes is deplorable;
+it is the moral duty of those in higher stations, it is the noble task of
+governments to raise them on the scale of intellect; education cannot be
+too general, but let it be in the true spirit of education. We are
+creatures, who depend greatly, perhaps wholly, on instruction. We can in
+general do little of ourselves. We must at first have {250} guides, and, to
+borrow the pithy expression of the famous bishop of Down, Jeremy Taylor,
+"if our guides do not put something into our heads, while children, the
+Devil will." The arts of reading and writing are mere mechanical
+instruments: to render them a blessing the soul must be fashioned into a
+spring of thought and action, and it behoves the fashioner to temper it
+justly. How desirable soever it might be, that the rising generation,
+enjoying the same constitution, should be united in the same mode of
+worship, yet, as that blessing seems unattainable in the present state of
+the world, it would be some consolation, if the various dissenters from the
+established church would hold themselves bound to insist upon the Christian
+religion, according to their own views of it, being taught in the new
+schools; and, I am free to confess, that the dissenting ministers in
+general are not deficient of zeal in impressing their religious principles
+on the minds of their followers; and it is but justice to say, that the
+world at large have been indebted to many of them, to Watts, {251} to
+Hartley, and to others: nor do I think, that the generality of dissenters
+can possibly approve of that plan, which, assembling poor children to be
+taught reading, writing, and figures, sends them to learn the relation
+between the Creator and his creature, the corruption of human nature, and
+the means of salvation, in a garret or a cellar, where want and ignorance,
+or low debauchery, are to be their preceptors. It is a mistaken
+benevolence, and good men of all communions should deprecate the evil, and
+resolve to avert it by the establishment of schools where the principal
+objects of education should be the principal things attended to, that the
+secondary ones may be made subservent to them; where, while the duties of
+man to God, to himself, and to society, are inculcated, the scholar may
+exercise his powers with books and pens to advantage, and without danger to
+the state. Nor, without previous oral instruction, should the Bible itself
+be put into the hands of readers, whether children or ignorant adults.
+Bible societies, consisting, beyond all doubt, of pious {252} men, will
+diffuse good or evil over the world according to the prudence with which
+the sacred volumes are distributed. In theology, as in natural philosophy,
+the uninformed mind cannot, of itself, embrace even the most
+incontrovertible truths: the raising of the dead and the rotation of the
+earth are alike incomprehensible; what is not immediately intelligible is
+not impressive, but when once we have been taught to observe the motion of
+the heavenly bodies, and are made sensible, that the power, which could
+assign certainty of operation to nature, must be equal to the suspension of
+it, astronomy and religion open upon us, and we fly to Newton and the
+Testament; and, seeing truths unfold themselves, we willingly take much on
+trust in both; certain that books, where we find so many demonstrations,
+are not intended to deceive us in any one point, and the resurrection of
+our Saviour becomes sooner solved than the precession of the equinox.
+
+It is impossible to contemplate the {253} advantages arising to our fellow
+creatures and to society from Dr. Bell's system of education for the poor,
+without delight and without grateful feelings to the author, and, I may
+add, the still active director of it. Thousands upon thousands will bless
+him, while he yet lives, and a perpetual series of millions will revere his
+memory after he shall have joined the myriads of spirits from whom he shall
+himself learn the celestial allelujahs, and those things which it has not
+entered the mind of man to conceive.
+
+It would be unjust not to pay a tribute of praise, also, to the founders of
+an institution, who, though dissenting in tenets, have adopted Dr. Bell's
+plan for a religious education, according to their principles: I allude to
+the Fitzroy free school for the instruction of six hundred children.
+
+Catholic schools, on a similar plan, have also been established, for the
+education of the poor children of catholic parents. These are {254}
+superintended by zealous priests, who give religious instruction
+gratuitously to the pupils. All such establishments merit encouragement,
+not only from members of their own communion, but from all, who by
+influence or wealth are able to aid them.
+
+In making religion the basis of education, no inference can be drawn, that
+the temporal interests and rights of mankind are to be neglected. Man, born
+to sorrow, having but a short time to live, is assuredly more concerned in
+securing an eternal than a temporal happiness; but he is sufficiently long
+in his transit to render his situation on earth of importance, and the ease
+and contentment of every individual should be the object of all
+governments: for this are communities formed, for this are laws made, for
+this does the sovereign execute the laws, and for this are individuals
+required to bear and to forbear. Evil must arise, and afflictions must be
+borne, but that government is the best imagined, and the most wisely
+administered, {255} by which the large mass of the people are enabled to
+pass through the years of probation with the greatest comfort, and are
+presented with opportunities of bettering their conditions and promoting
+their families. But I do not mean to interweave, here, an essay upon
+government and civil rights; the contemplation of the admirable system of
+education among the Jesuits led to these observations on the systems of
+general education, and in concluding them with expressly stating my opinion
+of the grand object of national community my view is, to leave no room for
+attributing the sentiments of loyalty and of religion, which, in such a
+work as this, have naturally fallen from my pen, to servility or bigotry.
+
+My subject is now come to its close: it is not to be denied, that the
+restoration of the order of Jesuits has excited alarm; for we already see a
+new conspiracy formed against it, possessing all the malignity, if not all
+the talent, or power, of the old one. But who are the persons alarmed?
+{256} They can be such only as have a similarity of spirit and of views to
+those of the former enemies of the society (sir John Hippisley nevertheless
+excepted, whose alarm must have a very different spring); men, who have
+already dared to warn the clergy of England against instituting schools, in
+which children are to be instructed in the national religion, because of
+the hostile feelings which will be excited between them and the children of
+the anti-church institutions[94]; jacobinical philosophers, materialists,
+votaries of reason and eternal sleep, and, perhaps, some clergy, as before,
+of their own communion, whose interest may be affected, and who have not
+penetration and virtue enough to see and enjoy the motive and the justice
+of their restoration to religion and to letters: "ignorance," said Henry
+IV, in his speech to Harlay before cited, "has always borne a grudge to
+learning." I trust, however, and believe, that I {257} have proved enough
+to convince the reader, that the Jesuits have been calumniated; that their
+destruction was effected by the malice and envy of their enemies, on the
+one hand, and by the pusillanimity of their proper protector on the other;
+that, as far as authority extends, there is a great and brilliant balance
+in their favour; that, on the ground of reasoning, the proof of their
+virtue as well as of their religion does not fall short of demonstration in
+the account of their institute; that they are not at war with protestant
+governments, whose catholic subjects they are well known long to have
+trained up in loyalty; and, that the small number now in this country have
+completed those proofs of loyalty by a solemn oath of allegiance to the
+king.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE
+
+LETTERS
+
+OF
+
+CLERICUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Calumniare audacter; semper aliquid adhaerebit.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+{261}
+
+THE
+
+LETTERS
+
+OF
+
+CLERICUS TO LAICUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LETTER I.
+
+    _Jesuitae, qui se maxime nobis opponunt, aut necandi, aut si hoc commode
+    fieri non potest, ejiciendi, aut certe mendaciis et calumniis opp
+    imendi sunt._--Calv. Axiom.--Vide Becan. tom. i, opusc. xvii, aphor.
+    15[95].
+
+In God's name, Laicus, who are you, and what is your aim? The order of
+Jesuits, you tell us, has been _totally abolished_. Every person {262} of
+moderate information knows, that to accomplish that abolition, which was
+not total, all the artifices of calumny were exhausted. Neither Calvin, nor
+Le Courayer, nor even Laicus, could have added a mite to the torrent of
+abuse of Jesuits, which inundated Europe about fifty years ago, when the
+complete overthrow of that order was finally planned and determined. The
+Jesuits fell; and within a few years Rome was sacked and pillaged; two
+successive pontiffs were lodged in dungeons; every French infidel, every
+fanatical gospeller throughout Europe, exulted in the discomfiture of the
+scarlet whore; the papacy was, on every side, pronounced to be extinct.
+But, behold, by the unerring operation of Providence, the papacy is again
+seated on the seven hills, and its old champions, the Jesuits, are once
+more called forth to sustain the assaults of calumny. But what inept
+calumny, what {263} falsehoods, what inconsistencies, what contradictions,
+have you, Laicus, raked together, to stifle the new life, which they are
+only beginning to enjoy! Thus in days of old conspired the Jewish pharisees
+to murder Lazarus, as soon as the Son of God had raised him from the
+tomb.--John xii, 10. Consider, Sir--you need not be so precipitate. Many
+years must yet pass, many powers must concur, to recruit, to drill, to
+marshal a new body of Jesuits, capable of achieving the mischief, which
+your virulent declamation imputes to their predecessors. I have spent some
+years of my life in foreign countries; I there read every libel against the
+Jesuits, that came in my way; but I never found one so perfectly
+contemptible as your two tottering columns in the TIMES, newspaper, of
+January the 27th. They will not support either themselves, or the credit of
+the publication which has received them. And yet this infamous trash must
+be noticed, because it is calculated to do harm. I say again, who are you?
+Tell me, if you dare. If you have written truth, why should you skulk {264}
+from the light? But, alas! _Omnis, qui male agit, odit lucem._--John iii,
+20.
+
+I need not ask again, what is your aim? Your two columns plainly tell it.
+It is not to convey information to discerning men; it is to poison the
+minds of the undiscriminating vulgar; it is to raise a popular cry, which,
+in this country, has more than once either intimidated virtuous ministers,
+or favoured the projects of bad ones. There is, you know it, even in this
+enlightened nation, a mass of fanaticism and bigotry, which may easily be
+called into action. If you are forty-five years old, you may remember,
+that, in 1780, one extravagant religionist made the streets stream with
+blood, and nearly wrapped the capital in flames. If you have read history,
+you know that the projectors of the _exclusion bill_ found the profligacy
+of Titus Oates quite sufficient to raise an enormous ferment throughout the
+nation, and to procure the legal murder of twenty harmless Jesuits,
+gentlemen and priests. You distinctly disclaim the {265} merit of novelty.
+Right: you dare not deviate an inch from the old beaten track of
+inflammatory calumny and defamation. Your whole tale has been long prepared
+and fashioned to your hands. Nothing in it is yours, but the
+inconsistencies, contradictions, and scurrilous language, with which you
+have pieced it together. It is copied from one or more of the ten thousand
+libels, which overspread Europe fifty years ago, when the confederate
+ministers of the catholic courts, the Pombals, the Choiseuls, the Arandas,
+the Tanuccis, the Caunitzes, the Spinellis, the Marefoschis, &c. had
+finally determined to assassinate the whole body of the Jesuits. I have
+read almost every word of your two flimsy columns in the old
+_Requisitoires_, _Comptes Rendus_, and _Arrets_ of the French parliaments,
+from which I traced it to the Jansenists, to the Calvinists, to the _Tuba
+Magna_, to Scioppius, to Hospinian, to the _Monarchia Solipsorum_, and to
+the lying _Monita Secreta_: yet this last is the only one of your foul
+sources, that you have the hardiness to cite, probably because you know it
+to be {266} the most malicious. It shall be specially noticed hereafter.
+Now all this was long ago refuted to the satisfaction of dispassionate men:
+even many of the French parliamentarians saw cause to regret their own
+deed. I have heard several of their leading men lament it, and some of them
+fairly acknowledge the _infamy_ of the slander, which their courts had
+employed to effect it. _Il falloit_ denigrer _les Jesuites; car sans cela,
+les parlemens n'en seroient jamais venus a bout_, were the words used by
+the late amiable and learned president Des Brosses in my hearing. But you,
+Sir, are not content to suck in the black bile of the old Gallic
+magistrates; you emulate the savage cruelty of Nero towards the primitive
+Christians--you dress up your Jesuits in the semblance of wild beasts, to
+entice your dogs to devour them.
+
+And could you not, then, see the inconsistency of representing the whole
+body of Jesuits, as men systematically trained to every vice and crime, and
+of acknowledging, at the same time, {267} that they governed the
+consciences of all monarchs, and of all their grandees; that they ruled
+courts; that they were every where trusted, respected, and employed? They
+enjoyed this credit during two hundred years, in all catholic countries,
+and, if we must believe you, in all countries not professedly catholic,
+that is, in protestant countries; and yet you require us to admit, that all
+the sovereigns, prelates, and magistrates of those nations, had neither the
+discernment to discover, nor the power to control the course of their
+wickedness. Indeed, Sir, the best refutation of your fable would be, a
+comparison of the state of religion, morality, order, and subordination in
+catholic countries, while Jesuits, as you tell us, were their teachers,
+preachers, and directors, with the face of public morals, after their
+enemies had accomplished their destruction. Another complete refutation of
+your inconsistent charge arises from the remarkable circumstance, that, in
+all the countries where Jesuits were consigned to jails, exile, infamy, and
+beggary, not a crime could be alleged or {268} proved against a single
+Jesuit; not one was ever interrogated or suffered to plead his cause.
+Horrid to tell! they were all everywhere condemned, everywhere punished
+unheard, untried. This is a fact of public notoriety[96].
+
+It is curious to observe, how your accusations turn to the credit of the
+Jesuits. The strict obedience, which was enjoined and practised in their
+society, is with you their crime; with every man of sense, it is their
+commendation. It was, in fact, the bond, which cemented them together,
+which supplied the place of monastic restrictions, incompatible with their
+various duties. Without it, they would soon have fallen into disorder, they
+would have been contemned; but they would not have been employed, nor
+trusted, nor even persecuted. {269} Another of their crimes is their
+_ardent attachment to their order_. I allow it was singular. They had a
+tender feeling for the good reputation of their society, and they all well
+understood, that it depended upon the good conduct of every individual[97].
+But who cannot see, that this {270} admitted fact stands in direct
+contradiction to that other crimination, where you execrate their
+government, as _perfect and unexampled despotism_? It is not possible, that
+a large body of well educated men should be enamoured of slavery. It is a
+truth, that the government of the Jesuits was the most gentle, and yet the
+most effective, that ever existed; and this, if you had sense to comprehend
+it, arose in a great measure from the perfection of their obedience. Let
+this suffice for your inconsistencies.
+
+Among your direct falsehoods, I rank your assertion, that their
+constitutions were framed by Laines and Acquaviva, both generals of the
+society: that the former was the author of your favourite libel, the
+_Monita Secreta_, and that it was brought to light at the end of the
+seventeenth century. This point shall be resumed. To mention all your
+falsehoods, I must copy your two columns: but I cannot omit arraigning you
+as a shameless impostor, for your assertion in _Italics_, that the Jesuits
+had obtained from {271} the holy see a special licence to trade. In fact,
+there never was a more idle calumny, than that Jesuits ruled the papal
+court, and possessed enormous wealth. It was an object of laughter even
+with those who re-echoed the tale in the loudest tone. The Jesuits never
+possessed a single post in the Roman court, to which power and influence
+were attached. Some of these belonged to more ancient orders; and, in those
+orders, the Jesuits generally found rivals and opponents. Not having the
+sources of power, they never possessed any other influence, either at Rome
+or elsewhere, than that which virtue and abilities occasionally give to
+individuals.
+
+To these enormous, I would rather say abnormous, misshapen lies, I add, in
+finishing, your assertion, that _the Jesuits took part in every intrigue,
+in every revolution_. You are not ignorant, it seems, that revolutions are
+always preceded by intrigues. Now, Laicus, you must patiently submit to be
+branded with the title of SPLENDIDE MENDAX, until you produce {272}
+undeniable proof, that the Jesuits were concerned in the intrigues, which
+produced the several revolutions of Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, of the
+United Provinces in 1570, of Portugal in 1640, of England in the same year,
+and again in 1688, and, more recently, in the revolution, which wrested the
+American States from the British crown. I will rub off the _splendide
+mendax_ from your forehead when you prove, that any one of these
+revolutions was contrived, or conducted, by Jesuits. It is a remarkable
+circumstance, that, amidst the fiercest rage of unceasing wars, the two
+great rival houses of Bourbon and Austria vied with each other in esteem
+and affection for the Jesuits. During the reigns of Philip II, and his
+three immediate successors in Spain; during the reigns of Maximilian, of
+the three Ferdinands, and Leopold, in Germany; during the reigns of Henry
+IV, and of the three Louises, who succeeded him, in France, the Jesuits
+obtained their most distinguished settlements in those various kingdoms. If
+ever a history of the {273} destruction of the Jesuits be written, it will
+show, that, purposely to bring forward the grand revolution, from which
+Europe is now struggling to recover, they were expelled from all the
+situations, in which European monarchs and prelates, the guardians of
+church and state, had placed them. This is the only revolution, in which
+Jesuits ought to be named. And here I advise you to meddle no more with
+this matter. _Melius non tangere, clamo._ Inquiry, or even chance, may
+betray your real name. If this happen, I shall add with the poet,
+
+  _Flebis, et insignis tota cantaberis urbe_.
+                          HOR. Sat. i, l. 2.
+
+Mean time your antagonist is
+
+  CLERICUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+{274}
+
+LETTER II.
+
+SIR;
+
+In my last, I engaged myself to say a word on your _Monita Secreta_. This
+rancid libel, indeed, refutes itself. No man of common sense will allow
+even the possibility of a large body of men being governed, or of attaining
+credit and power by such absurd maxims, under the inspection of so many
+powerful princes, wise ministers, and learned prelates. Certainly these
+lords of church and state could not be so blind, during one hundred and
+fifty years, as to tolerate, to cherish a gang of thieves, and to intrust
+to them the public instruction of the people, and the education of youth.
+Such a set of maxims would not have held together a band of professed
+forgers or swindlers, during a single {275} year. And the contriver of
+them, you tell us, was Laines, whom you incautiously allow to have been a
+man of _superior abilities in the science of government_. The folly of
+imputing such trash to Laines must appear evident to all who know, that he
+was one of the most distinguished divines and preachers of his age; that he
+was deputed, in three different pontificates, as pontifical theologian to
+the council of Trent; that his harangues were considered almost as oracular
+by the fathers of that venerable assembly; that his manners were as saintly
+as his learning was extensive, that he was specially selected by Pius IV to
+confute the Hugonots in the conference at Poissy; that, on his return from
+that embassy, he refused the dignity of cardinal, with which the pope
+offered to distinguish his eminent merit; and, that he ended his career in
+1565, seven years after he had been elected general of the young society.
+Now, say, what time could a man so busied in theological and missionary
+labours in Italy and France, command to conduct commercial {276}
+speculations in India, as you in your odious libel assert?
+
+But alas, why should Laicus spare Laines, when he has dared to blaspheme
+the great, the renowned Francis Xavier, as a monster of cruelty, as an
+extortioner of Indian wealth? As if such senseless insult, at the distance
+of two hundred and sixty years, could disparage the revered merit, or
+obliterate the tribute of admiration and praise, which mankind have agreed
+to give him, and which sober protestants have not refused: such are Baldeus
+and Hackluyt, cited in the wonderful life of that famous apostle, by
+Bouhours, translated into English by our Dryden.--See p. 766, 767.
+
+The maxims of Xavier and Laines, consigned in your _Monita Secreta_, were
+first brought to light, you tell us, at the close of the seventeenth
+century, about one hundred and forty years after the decease of the
+supposed author; and yet you have not a shadow of proof to allege, that
+they {277} made any sensation in the world; that any prince, prelate, or
+magistrate, that any man whatever gave credit to them. Would you know, Sir,
+the origin of your despicable _Monita_? Not in the days of Laines, not at
+the close, but in the early years of the seventeenth century, a Jesuit was
+dismissed with ignominy from the society in Poland, an uncommon
+circumstance but judged due to his misconduct. The walls of the city of
+Cracow were soon covered with sheets of revengeful insults; and, in the
+year 1616, this outcast of the society published his fabricated _Secreta
+Monita_, with a view to cover his own disgrace, or to gratify his revenge.
+"Whether he attained either of these objects," says the elegant historian,
+Cordara (a name well known in the republic of letters), "I cannot
+determine; but certain it is, nothing was ever more ineptly silly, than
+this work: _Quo opere, ut modeste dicam, nihil ineptius._"--Vid. Cordara,
+Hist. Soc. Jes. page 29. Cordara would have made an exception in favour of
+Laicus, if he had lived to read {278} his Letters in the Times. The libel,
+however, though condemned and prohibited at Rome by the Congregation of the
+Index on the 10th of May, 1616, was industriously propagated, meeting every
+where its merited contempt. It was victoriously refuted by Gretser, who
+died in 1625, seventy-five years before the work was discovered, if the
+admirable Laicus is to be believed. This refutation, which was not wanted,
+may be read in Gretser's works, edit. of Ratisbon, 1634[98].
+
+{279}
+
+Laicus affirms, that an edition of the _Monita_ was dedicated to sir Robert
+Walpole in 1722. Though every assertion of such a writer may be doubted,
+yet, admitting the truth of this, which I cannot disprove, a probable
+reason for it may, I think, be assigned. From the period of the accession
+of the {280} House of Hanover, in 1714, a negotiation had been on foot for
+the repeal of the penal laws. It miscarried, principally from the still
+subsisting attachment to the House of Stuart, and partly from the enmity
+openly professed against the Jesuit missionaries by a small number of
+catholics, priests and laymen, who insisted, that they should be excepted
+from the expected act of grace. During the first years of George I, several
+angry libels and invectives were industriously circulated, purposely to
+indispose the public against them; and it is observable, that the same
+jealousy and party rancour had influenced the negotiations instituted in
+favour of catholics in the reign of Charles II, and even during the
+usurpation of Cromwell. The edition of Laicus's cherished libel, in 1722,
+if it be a reality, was probably published on the same principles; and this
+reflection will soon lead me to detect the ultimate view of Laicus and his
+associates in the present effusions of slander, which they are scattering
+abroad. This point may be reserved for future examination. {281}
+
+It is not possible to dwell upon all the wilful falsehoods of the second
+Letter, with the same extent which I have given to the fable of the
+_Monita_. The power of the general of the Jesuits is nicely ascertained in
+the volumes of the Institute; and, indeed, a true account of it cannot be
+drawn from any other source. Now I assert, that every word written upon it
+in the Institute, stands directly in contradiction to your description of
+it in your second Letter. It was said of an ancient painter, _Nulla dies
+sine linea_: I say of your wild rant, _Nulla linea sine mendacio_. In the
+books of the Institute, the general's power is balanced and checked in a
+stile, that has been admired by the deepest men in the science of
+legislation, cardinal Richelieu and others; and all this has been
+repeatedly sanctioned, confirmed, and extolled by popes, who, according to
+you, were at once governed and opposed, ruled and thwarted, overswayed and
+disobeyed, and sometimes murdered by Jesuits. What idiots these popes must
+have been! In what chapter of the Institute did {282} Laicus discover the
+power or the practice of admitting men of all religions into the society?
+Could men, of various religious persuasions have ever coalesced into one
+regular system of propagating exclusively the Roman catholic religion,
+which, as well as persecution of protestants and their own aggrandisement,
+you allow to have been at all times the main object of Jesuits? Who can
+believe, that _protestant Jesuits_ would ever have submitted to persecute
+protestants? Who can imagine unanimity of mind, heart, and action among
+men, who disagreed in the fundamental principle? In what historian, or in
+what tradition, has Laicus found, that pope Innocent XIII was murdered, or
+murdered by _Jesuits_? Strange, that the discovery of such a crime should
+have been reserved for Laicus, ninety-one years after the death of that
+pontiff[99]! Who, before Laicus, ever wrote, {283} that the assassin of
+Henry III of France was _instigated_ by Jesuits? Wait another number of the
+TIMES, Laicus will improve: he will roundly assure us, that the miserable
+Jacques Clement actually was a Jesuit. No man conversant in the history of
+France ever doubted of the civil wars of the sixteenth century having
+originated with the rebellious Hugonots; but no man before Laicus ever
+attributed all the horrors of that dismal period to Jesuits. The famous
+league opposed the succession of the Bourbons in the person of {284} Henry
+IV; and the whole guilt of their proceedings against Henry IV is
+exclusively ascribed to Jesuits. And yet this very monarch, whom Laicus
+calls _the greatest and best king of France_, was perhaps, of all men that
+ever wore a crown, the warmest friend and protector of the Jesuits.
+Possibly I may be wrong in this assertion; because the glory of Henry IV,
+in this particular, is certainly rivalled, if not exceeded, by the
+illustrious favour and protection afforded to the persecuted Jesuists by
+the late empress Catharine of Russia, and by the present magnanimous
+emperor Alexander. Henry IV condescended to refute in public the passionate
+imputations of the president Harlay against the Jesuits. His son, Louis
+XIII, and his grandson, the famous Louis XIV, imitated his example, in
+their esteem of the society; and because this was undeniable, behold
+Laicus, by a bold effort of genius, has transformed the renowned monarch,
+Louis XIV, into a Jesuit professed of four vows. How a Frenchman must scout
+such ribaldry! But enough of these extravagancies. {285} In reading them, I
+began to suspect, that Laicus's aim might be to ridicule the revilers of
+Jesuits, by imputing to the latter things evidently false, clearly
+inconsistent, absolutely impossible. Thus, I well remember it, when the
+absurd tale of the Jesuit king Nicolas of Paraguay amused the Laicuses of
+the day, the writer of one of the Holland gazettes, in his description of
+that king's battle against the Spanish and Portuguese troops, endeavoured
+to turn the fable into ridicule by asserting, that king Nicolas had
+displayed much bravery, and had fought until three capuchins were shot
+under him in the action. But I apprehend, that Laicus and his prompters do
+not rave merely for sport. Their real views will gradually appear: they are
+not quite unknown to
+
+  CLERICUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+{286}
+
+LETTER III.
+
+SIR;
+
+At the close of your first Letter, you promise to refer, in your next, to
+the evidences for the statements, which you have made. I was curious to see
+upon what historical evidence such a mass of forgeries could rest. In
+labouring through your second Letter, I discovered much intrinsic evidence,
+that you are a still improving adept in the art of bold and unsupported
+assertion, but not a shadow of proof, that your rants were ever believed by
+any man before yourself. The only authority cited in it is of one Collado,
+who asserted, that the conduct of the Jesuits was the occasion of the
+abolition of Christianity in Japan; but whoever has read the history of
+{287} Christianity in those islands will deny the position, upon grounds
+more certain than those on which it is advanced. The whole of your second
+Letter is no more than an unconnected congeries of the grossest impostures.
+In my second I marked out a few; I shall presently indicate some others;
+and I shall leave my readers to determine, whether you have substantiated
+your first calumnies, only by the production of new ones.
+
+I have searched your third Letter in quest of evidence, of proof, of
+historical support; and I find, that the two most prominent names in it are
+Prynne and De Thou. I may here remark, that it is highly illiberal and
+unjust to uphold imputations of guilt, even against the worst of culprits,
+solely upon the asseverations of their declared enemies; and, if these
+enemies stand otherwise convicted of malicious calumnies, this circumstance
+alone must go far towards the acquittal of the accused. Now, it is well
+known, {288} that Prynne and De Thou wrote in the most turbulent times,
+amidst the distractions and rage of civil wars, occasioned in England and
+in France by restless sectaries; that they were both inflamed with party
+rage, and never spared their adversaries. If, then, their testimony is to
+be admitted as irrefragable, in the present times, in one point, why not in
+another? If, without a shadow of proof, we must believe with Prynne and
+you, that the Irish massacre and the British civil wars were to be imputed
+to Jesuits, and especially to Cuneus, the pope's nuncio, and cardinal
+Barberini (who, by the way, never were Jesuits), we must also believe every
+thing written by that foul mouthed lawyer against Charles I, against
+episcopacy, and against the famous archbishop Laud. But we know, that the
+fellow's ears were twice bored and cropped in the pillory for his
+defamatory libels, and that his cheeks were seared with the letters S. L.
+(seditious libeller.) I believe my readers will agree, that the stigma
+might, with propriety, be transferred to the unblushing front of the
+retailer of his falsehoods. {289} Before I speak of De Thou, I will mention
+only a few of your insufferable fabrications, which hardly Prynne himself
+would have ventured to utter. 1. "In matters both of _faith_ and practice,
+the members of the society are bound to obey the society, and not the
+church[100]." In what part of their Institute is this canon found? It was
+unknown to the council of Trent, and to the several popes, whose
+confirmation and commendation that Institute obtained. 2. "They have
+invariably opposed episcopacy, and they have _repeatedly_ attacked the
+decrees of general councils, especially that of Trent[101]." It should
+seem, that, in a protestant country, _attacks_ upon catholic councils would
+not be deemed very enormous sins. But, since they have been _repeatedly_
+committed by Jesuits, it would have been easy for Laicus to convict them,
+at least, in one instance. Why has it been omitted? 3. "The society has
+prisons, {290} independent of secular authority, in which refractory
+members are put to death; a _right_ which Laines obtained for them[102]."
+Quere, from whom did he obtain it? From the pope? In what bullarium then
+may the grant be found? Did Jesuits ever attempt to use this _right_? Did
+secular sovereigns quietly acquiesce in such a glaring usurpation of their
+most undoubted right? Of what avail could such a privilege have been to the
+Jesuits, who always had the power to dismiss refractory members from their
+society, as they dismissed Jerom Zarowicz, Antonio de Dominis, abbe Raynal,
+and many others? Poor Laicus cannot answer one of these questions. He has
+disclaimed all pretension to novelty; he is satisfied with copying
+malignity; and, to the shame of the Encyclopedia Britannica, he has
+transcribed this impudent forgery from vol. ix of that work (_page_ 510,
+_art. Laines_), where, without a shadow of proof or of probability, it is
+roundly stated, that "Laines, {291} general of the Jesuits, procured from
+pope Paul IV the privilege of having prisons independent of the secular
+authority, in which they (the Jesuits) put to death refractory brethren."
+4. "One peculiar object of the society is to direct and aid the operations
+of the Inquisition[103]." It is not easy to ascertain the precise source of
+this falsehood. Probably it is not borrowed from foreign libels, because,
+in all catholic countries, it was universally known, that Jesuits never had
+any concern in the administration, or proceedings, of the Inquisition. 5.
+"The Jesuits usurped the sovereignty of Paraguay, and held the Indians in
+slavery[104]." This has been a thousand times said; and it has been as
+often demonstrated, to the satisfaction of impartial inquirers, that the
+Jesuits were the steady friends and defenders of the liberty of the
+Indians, and that the success of their missions in South America was a
+glorious triumph of {292} humanity and religion, hardly to be equalled in
+the history of the Christian church. 6. "They formed two conspiracies
+against king Joseph of Portugal, and his whole family[105]." In spite of
+the prepotency of the cruel minister Pombal, truth has prevailed, and the
+world remains convinced, that not even one conspiracy was ever formed
+against king Joseph of Portugal, either by Jesuits, or by any other
+persons. 7. "The Jesuits beheaded eighty Frenchmen and hung five hundred
+friars for maintaining the rights of Anthony king of Portugal, in the
+island of Tercera, where they had compelled him to take refuge, after
+having disposed of his crown[106]." All this is a blundering confusion of
+the adventures of the bastard Portuguese prince Antonio, prior of Crato,
+and of the history of king Alfonso, who, a hundred years later, was deposed
+and confined in the island of Tercera. Whoever has looked into Portuguese
+{293} history may remember, that Antonio's pretensions to the crown were
+settled, not by Jesuits, but by the duke of Alva, at the head of a Spanish
+army of twenty thousand men. He may have read, that several persons were
+executed in Tercera, for supporting Antonio's cause, by the commanders of a
+Spanish armament; but no man has read, that five hundred friars were put to
+death, or ever existed at one time, in the island of Tercera. Whatever the
+case may be, the Jesuits had no concern in what befel the pretender
+Antonio, or king Alfonso, or the poor friars of Tercera. 8. "The Jesuits
+deposed the grand duke of Muscovy with great bloodshed, for a creature of
+their own[107]." When did all this happen, and who was the grand duke?
+Laicus will not easily answer these questions. 9. "A memoir of cardinal
+Noailles leaves no doubt of Louis XIV having taken the four vows of the
+Jesuits[108]." On this {294} point the policy of the Jesuits appears to
+have been defective. If they had sent good father Louis XIV to a foreign
+mission, for instance, to Canada or Brazil, in execution of his fourth vow,
+and had bestowed his crown upon some other creature of their own, as they
+had transferred that of poor king Anthony, probably they might have ruled
+Europe with less trouble. Father Louis XIV was not always disposed to be a
+submissive subject[109].
+
+I mention two facts more, because they are new--not related by Prynne, nor
+even by the {295} learned writer of the historical articles in the
+Encyclopedia Britannica, whose words, in his article "Jesuits," you have so
+exactly copied into your Letters. 10. "Pope Urban VIII," you say,
+"transmitted a bull to the Jesuits' vice-provincial, Stillington,
+commanding all catholics to be aiding in the civil war, for which they
+should receive indulgences, such as power of releasing others from
+purgatory, and of eating fish at prohibited times, and if _he_ should be
+killed, of being placed in the Martyrology[110]." The gross absurdity of
+this narration is evident without a comment[111]. The other is still more
+extraordinary. 11. You invite us to consult "the important memorial
+presented by Parsons the Jesuit, to king James II, for bringing in
+popery[112]." This Parsons is a most {296} wonderful Jesuit. You have
+already sported him as the associate of Campion to assassinate queen Bess
+in 1581, that is, one hundred and four years before James II became king of
+England; and it is very certain, that he died and was fairly buried at
+Rome, in the month of April, 1610; that is, twenty-three years before king
+James II was born. I omit many other Jesuitical pranks, which you allege,
+relative to English history, because every reader may find the refutation
+of them, only by looking into Dr. Milner's celebrated Letters to Dr.
+Sturges, where the profligacy of Elizabeth and her ministers, and the
+futility of the assassination-plots, with which they charged Jesuits and
+other priests, are evinced to demonstration. It is now time to think of De
+Thou.
+
+This writer's character is well drawn by the learned professor of Lovain,
+Dr. Paquot:--_Thuanus audax nimium; hostis Jesuitarum imcabilis;
+calumniator Guisiorum; protestantium exscriptor, laudator, amicus; sedi
+apostolicae et_ {297} _synodo Tridentinae, totique rei catholicae parum
+aequus._ De Thou was fully animated with the general and prevalent spirit of
+the parliament of Paris, in which he held the rank of _president a
+mortier_; and this spirit led them at all times to advance their own
+importance, by favouring every party that opposed either the church or the
+crown. Their constant aim was to balance the power of the monarch, and to
+depress the spiritual authority of the holy see and the bishops. During the
+active administration of Louis XIV, they were confined to their proper
+functions of civil and criminal justice; but in the times, which preceded
+and followed that reign, they were leaguers, and favourers of the Hugonots,
+and abettors of the Fronde, and, lastly, open protectors of the Jansenists.
+De Thou never publicly seceded from the catholic church; he was satisfied
+with insulting it. His abilities were great; the elegance of his style is
+engaging: but, as he wrote solely to favour the Hugonots, his narrations
+are compiled only upon their memoirs, or they are sports of his own {298}
+imagination. He professes to write the history only of his own times; and,
+consequently, his story rests upon his own credit, unsupported by vouchers:
+his _ipse dixit_ is the whole proof. He is wonderfully fond of detailing
+conspiracies against princes, and, in these fabulous tales, he completely
+sacrifices the dignity of the historian; he sinks into a romancer and a
+comedian. He leads his conspirator through cities and provinces, to gather
+associates; the pope, or the king of Spain, or some cardinal, directs the
+plot; he has at his finger-ends the closest secrets of the conspiracy; he
+recites letters, which were never written; and, most commonly, Jesuits, but
+sometimes Dominicans, even Capuchins, are his principal actors. These men
+give anticipated absolution to the assassin; they promise him the crown and
+palm of martyrdom; they impart to him the pope's benediction; and, to use
+your odious cant, they give him the sacrament upon it. All this is sweet
+reading to bigoted sectaries; and, with them, the word of De Thou is
+paramount to demonstrative proof. {299}
+
+I have sketched De Thou's character, because he stands foremost among the
+modern corrupters of history, too successfully followed by Voltaire, by
+Hume, by Robertson, and a throng of servile imitators in France and in
+England, whose historical romances have so much contributed to render
+religion odious, and to plunge mankind into scepticism and infidelity.
+
+Having already mentioned the writer of the historical and biographical
+articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, I here recommend to Laicus to
+cultivate a more intimate correspondence with that accurate compiler, if he
+be still engaged in historical pursuits. They will thus reciprocally gather
+improvement by communication of their respective discoveries; they will
+mutually support each other, and advance the common cause in which they are
+engaged. How strange it is, that the historian of the Encyclopedia, so well
+informed of whatever concerns Jesuits, should not have known, that Louis
+XIV was a professed member of that order, bound by four solemn {300} vows;
+_viz._ of voluntary poverty, perpetual chastity, and entire obedience to
+the general of the society in all things, and likewise to the pope with
+respect to foreign missions! Surely he would have enriched the Encyclopedia
+with this prominent fact, so undoubtedly ascertained by Laicus and cardinal
+de Noailles. How strange again it is, that the penetrating Laicus should
+have been ignorant, that this very Louis XIV, this professed Jesuit, so far
+forgot the humility of his religious profession, as to arrogate to himself
+the worship and honours, which religion appropriates to the Divinity! And
+yet this important fact, which had escaped all the writers of that royal
+Jesuit's life, is consigned to posterity for an historical truth, in the
+seventh volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica, page 432, in the following
+words: "He (Louis XIV) was so blinded by flattery, that he arrogated to
+himself the _divine honours_, paid to the pagan _emperors of Rome_." The
+circulation of this fact by Laicus, would at one stroke have crushed the
+Jesuits, and would have conciliated immortal {301} honour and credit to the
+TIMES. Who can contemplate the historical labours of these three worthies,
+the historian of the Encyclopedia, the editor of the TIMES, and the
+incomparable Laicus, without thinking of the fate of their predecessor
+Prynne?
+
+It is remarkable, that while the Jesuits were thus insulted by Prynnes and
+De Thous, and their numerous disciples, they were everywhere befriended by
+princes and states, who freighted them to foreign missions at the public
+expense, and who multiplied their colleges and settlements throughout
+Europe, in which they quietly assisted the clergy in the functions of
+religion, and successfully conducted those schools, which our famous Bacon
+so much admired: _Consule scholas Jesuitarum_, is his well known text;
+_nihil enim quod in usum venit, his melius_.--De dign. et augm. Scient. l.
+6. He had already said (l. 1) of the Jesuits, "_Quorum cum intueor
+industriam solertiamque, tam in doctrina excolenda, quam in moribus
+informandis, illud {302} occurrit Agesilai de Pharnabaso: Talis cum sis,
+utinam nostor esses_."
+
+The testimony of Bacon overbalances ten thousand Encyclopedists, and all
+their servile transcribers. To cover them with confusion, I finish with
+citing two of the most celebrated names, that have ever graced any of the
+various sects, known by the common appellation of protestants--I mean the
+great Grotius and Leibnitz. The latter maintained a constant correspondence
+with Jesuits, even with the missioners in China. His letters, which yet
+exist, prove that he was, and that he gloried in being, their friend; that
+he rejoiced in their successes, and was grieved by their afflictions and
+sufferings. The Latin text, which I would wish to transcribe from the
+learned Grotius, is rather long, and it would be enervated by translation.
+(See Grotius Hist. 1. iii, p. 273. edit. Amstelod. an. 1658.) Here he
+employs the nervous style of Tacitus, to describe the origin of the
+Jesuits, the purity of their morals, their zeal to propagate {303}
+Christianity, to instruct youth, the respect which they had justly
+acquired, their disinterestedness, their prudence in commanding, their
+fidelity in obeying, their moderation in all their dealings, their progress
+and increase, &c. &c. "_Mores inculpatos, bonas artes, magna in vulgum
+auctoritas ob vitae sanctimoniam_.--_Sapienter imperant, fideliter
+parent.--Novissimi omnium, sectas priores fama vicere, hoc ipso caeteris
+invisi.--Medii foedum inter obsequium et tristem arrogantiam, nec fugiunt
+hominum vitia, nec sequuntur_, &c."
+
+  You may hear once more from
+
+          CLERICUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+{304}
+
+LETTER IV.
+
+  _Ecce iterum Crispinus, et est mihi saepe vocandus_
+  _In partes._
+                                JUV. Sat. 4.
+
+What! Laicus once more! And is he not then prostrate on the ground, gagged
+and muzzled beyond the possibility of barking? His ignorance, his
+falsehoods, his sophistry, have been sufficiently branded; yet,
+spider-like,
+
+  Destroy his slander and his fibs--in vain,
+  The creature's at its dirty work again.
+                                POPE.
+
+Undoubtedly he never deserved, and never would have received even a first
+answer, if it had not been apparent, that his venal pen was guided and paid
+by mischief-makers of deeper views: and hence arises the necessity of
+noticing this fourth effusion, to disable the retailers of {305} his
+falsehoods from vainly boasting, that slander unanswered is acknowledged
+truth. I write not to Laicus, but to his prompters, and to his readers, if
+there be any left.
+
+They may observe, that the imputations in this fourth Letter are
+two--king-killing continually practised, and immoral doctrines continually
+taught by Jesuits: and to this is added a short summary of authorities, by
+which all this trash is upheld. It would be an easy, but now uninteresting
+task, to disprove these several imputations; and this has long since been
+victoriously done. It may suffice to know, that they were all advanced by
+party men, maddened by civil and religious rage: they are registered only
+in the murky pages of antiquated libels, and they are here reproduced for
+the dishonest purpose of blackening virtue, which triumphed over them, when
+they were fresh. Pamphlets of Hugonots, libels of loose catholics,
+declamations of rival teachers, who apprehended their own humiliation in
+the success of the Jesuits, _Plaidoyers_, {306} _Requisitoires_, and
+harangues of _Pasquiers_ and _Harlays_, sworn enemies of the society,
+_Arrets_ of their courts of parliament, ever intent to curtail the
+spiritual authority of the church, and to abridge the power of the reigning
+monarch, in order to advance their own. Such are the men, such the
+passions, which invented accusations of regicide against the Jesuits in
+France during the horrid confusion of the Hugonotic wars. At the return of
+public tranquillity, they all sunk into oblivion during the period of one
+hundred and fifty years, until Jansenism and Deism renewed them, in 1760,
+and the ensuing years, as a powerful engine to accomplish the utter
+destruction of their known and common enemies. It is needless to disprove
+each imputed fact: I will only, for a sample, refute the first, which
+stands in Laicus's foul calendar. It is the assertion, that the Jesuit
+Varade was implicated in the guilt of the assassins of Henry IV, Barriere
+and Chatel. Now Varade was defended and cleared by an advocate, to whom no
+reply could be made: this was Henry IV himself, who, in his famous answer
+to the parliamentary president {307} Harlay, vindicated the honour and the
+innocence of that Jesuit and of all his associates, in a strain of
+eloquence, which Harlay and his coadjutors felt to be irresistible. The
+royal orator concluded his victorious defence of his friends, by advising
+all his hearers to forget the past excesses of civil discord, and not to
+exasperate smothered passions, by mutual reproaches, into new crimes. The
+employers of Laicus would do well to follow this advice.
+
+Though Henry IV was not the model of a perfect king, I have always thought
+his conduct towards the Jesuits a strong proof, that his return to the
+religion of his forefathers was sincere. The parliament, which had opposed
+him, while he headed the Hugonot party, opposed him now from the motives
+above alleged, and determined to deprive him of the services of the
+Jesuits, on whom they knew that he greatly depended, for the
+re-establishment of the catholic religion. They drove the Jesuits from
+France with every mark of ignominy, before Henry was strong enough to
+support them. When {308} his power was consolidated, he restored them to
+their country, and he chose one of them for his preacher, confessor, and
+bosom friend. This was the celebrated father Cotton, whom Laicus impudently
+names in his list of Jesuit regicides. In such rage of faction, it is no
+wonder that the parliament erected a pillar to the infamy of the persecuted
+Jesuits. It was not quite so tall as the British monument, which still
+attests to the heavens, in the words of the lord mayor, Patience Ward, that
+the city of London was burnt by the malice of the catholics, in 1666. The
+difference is, that in calmer times the Gallic column, with all the
+calumnies of Harlay, was erased, but Patience Ward, who had been put into
+the pillory for perjury, still lies uncontradicted[113]. To the article of
+regicides I add, that {309} the attempt on the life of Louis XV, in 1757,
+was not imputed to Jesuits, either by parliaments, or by Jansenists. The
+calumny in the fourth Letter is, I imagine, the undisputed property of
+Laicus or his prompters[114].
+
+{310}
+
+On the second head of accusation--immoral doctrine--I wish to be short. The
+purity of the Jesuits' doctrine and morals was solemnly attested by the
+most qualified judges, a special assembly of fifty cardinals, archbishops,
+and bishops, of the Gallic church, convened by Louis XV; and their report
+was confirmed by many other prelates, who were not deputed to that
+assembly. A stronger proof of their innocence was the absolute inability of
+their enemies to convict a single Jesuit of four thousand, who were spread
+through France, of any immoral principle, doctrine, or practice. The
+parliament still pursued their beaten track. _Il faut denigrer les
+Jesuites_ was their maxim. Envy, with her hundred jaundiced eyes, was every
+where on the watch to discover a flaw. Malice, with her hundred envenomed
+tongues, stood ready to echo it through the globe. Fruitless industry!
+{311} The poor parliament was reduced to spare the living Jesuits, not from
+any regard for truth, but because they knew, that their calumnies would not
+be believed. They therefore impeached the doctrine and morals of all
+deceased Jesuits, who had existed during two hundred years, and they
+intrusted the delicious task of blackening the dead to the impure pens of
+Jansenists, headed principally by Dom. Clemencet. From this man's foul
+laboratory proceeded the _Extraits des Assertions_, a monstrous compilation
+of forged and falsified texts, purporting to contain the uniform doctrine,
+taught invariably at all times by the whole society of Jesus, and to
+exhibit a fair picture of their morals. The parliament sanctioned, and
+addressed this abominable book to every bishop, and to every college in
+France. Every bishop in France felt himself and religion insulted by it;
+and almost every bishop condemned and forbade it to be kept or read. The
+celebrated archbishop of Paris, De Beaumont, in particular, demonstrated
+the forgeries and artful falsifications, which it contained, and it was
+moreover solidly refuted by _La Reponse aux_ {312} _Assertions_. This
+laboured piece of Jansenistical malice seems to be unknown to Laicus and
+his associates, though he has copied and cited several of the vile libels,
+which were industriously circulated, to convey the indecent impurities of
+the book _Des Assertions_ to every corner of France. In this point the
+shameless Laicus has faithfully imitated his models, or rather he has
+confined himself to one, whom he calls Coudrette; and, with his usual
+effrontery, he turns this obscure man into a repentant Jesuit,
+acknowledging and expiating his crimes by an unreserved confession of their
+foulness. His magic pen has already changed into Jesuits three such perfect
+_disparates_, as Louis XIV, the miserable Jacques Clement, and the weak
+English archpriest Blackwell. It has, upon motives equally invidious,
+transformed to Jesuits two churchmen of the first rate merit, the cardinals
+Allen and Barberini, because these two prelates were, at different periods,
+concerned in the religious affairs of England, and were thereby obnoxious
+to the then prevailing sects, though neither of them had any other
+connexion with Jesuits, than the {313} intercourse of friendship and
+esteem. But Coudrette a Jesuit! How can this be credited? New personages in
+comedies are introduced to excite new interest; and was Coudrette ever
+before named in this island? Indeed his name is so very obscure, that it is
+difficult to find, even a Frenchman, who ever heard it. It has however
+obtained a small niche in two French historical dictionaries, the first of
+which, _par une societe des gens-de-lettres_, though friendly to the
+Jansenists, styles Coudrette _un ennemi acharne des Jesuits_. The other, by
+the well known abbe Feller, a man of very general information, asserts,
+that Coudrette had been from his youth, _de tres bonne heure_, a violent
+partisan of Jansenism, closely connected with the abbe Boursier, one of the
+heroes of the sect. In 1735 and 1738, during the ministry of cardinal de
+Fleury, he was confined by a _lettre de cachet_ first at Vincennes, then in
+the Bastille, for his intrigues, cabals, and libels against the church; and
+of course he was canonized as a saint in the _Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques_,
+the well known {314} Jansenistical gazette. When the parliaments denounced
+open war against the Jesuits, he came forward a volunteer in the cause, and
+printed his _Histoire general des Jesuites_ in the course of 1761: but
+Coudrette and his history were perfectly forgotten in France before 1762.
+How could a copy of it have escaped into England? It has found its proper
+repository on the shelves of Laicus, or his employer[115].
+
+I have done with Laicus and his authorities. He promises a commentary upon
+his own performance. It has not, I believe, yet appeared, {315} even in the
+Times. Mine shall be very short.
+
+Though I have proved Laicus and his associates to be unprincipled
+impostors, I have said nothing of them and their assertions, but what every
+man of virtue and information knows to be true. Every prince, every
+observer knows, that the overthrow of the society of Jesus was the first
+link in the concatenation of causes, which produced the late horrible
+successes of rebellion and infidelity. They all know, that the Jesuits,
+when their body was intire, were among the most active supporters of
+religion, learning, good order, and subordination to established powers,
+though, perhaps, professing religious creeds different from their own.
+Above all, they know, that Jesuits were every where _staunch and steady
+friends of monarchy_. Who then will wonder, that the renowned Catherine of
+Russia protected them in their greatest distress, unbendingly maintaining
+the full integrity of their institute, even in the smallest points? Who
+will be {316} surprised, that the heroic Alexander continues to distinguish
+them by fresh favours? Who will cavil at Pius VII, in this new dawn of
+public tranquillity, for his endeavours to recover their services? Who will
+blame other princes for imitating his example? Possibly the good pontiff
+may conceive himself more bound than other princes, to make some
+compensation to the few remaining Jesuits, because he was a witness of the
+aggravated cruelties inflicted upon them and their superiors, at the time
+of the suppression by his predecessor Clement XIV. But the motives and the
+conduct of these princes present matter too ample to be treated at present
+by
+
+  CLERICUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+{317}
+
+LETTER V.
+
+                                _Servetur ad imum_
+  _Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet._
+                                HORACE.
+
+SIR;
+
+I might spare myself the trouble of answering your fifth, concluding
+Letter, because I believe it will be read by few, and credited by none. You
+seem afraid of being called an alarmist. Good Sir, be easy. No man of
+common information, or of common sense, will catch the alarm of danger from
+your pretended conclusions. Your impotent cries of danger to church and
+state are like the cries of a madman, who should scream out "Fire, Fire,"
+in the midst of a deluge[116]. Thus, even if your {318} pretended
+conclusions descended in a right order of logic from your premises, the
+slightest view of the present state of things would convince every thinking
+man of the inutility of taking precautions, where no danger can possibly
+exist. But what must every thinking man conclude, when he knows, that your
+miserable inferences descend from a mass of forgeries, calumnies,
+imputations equally groundless and malicious; when he traces them up to a
+string of gratuitous suppositions, wantonly assumed and totally devoid of
+proof? If he has looked into my four Letters, he has recoiled with disgust
+from that sink of ribaldry, inconsistency, contradiction, and falsehood,
+which provoked them; and he has said, that though Clericus has swept away
+only a part of the dirt, which you have collected, he has sufficiently
+showed, that the rest, which he has left untouched, is equally odious and
+noisome. In fact, upon a slight review of your audacious criminations, I
+cannot discover even one, which is supported by truth; no, not one, which I
+would not undertake to brand with the stigma of falsehood. {319}
+
+And what then can engage me to meddle with your final observations and
+inferences? Certainly not the apprehension, that men of sense and knowledge
+will ever acquiesce in them; but because they are all intended to feed some
+of the worst passions, that canker the human heart, to gratify disappointed
+anger, fretful jealousy, and revengeful spite. That these sour passions are
+apt to rankle in narrow hearts is not a novelty. I have caught them, in
+late years, venting themselves against your enemies the Jesuits, through
+newspapers and other prints, in tales nearly as absurd and fictitious, as
+was the alarming story in the reign of Charles II, of thirty thousand
+pilgrims and lay brothers, embodied at St. Andero, ready to invade old
+England under the conduct of the general of the Jesuits. Now your monstrous
+stories coming upon the back of these fables, must lead every man of sense
+to conclude, that not the consideration of public security, but the
+accomplishment of some private view must have prompted this wantonness of
+slander. But {320} supposing for an instant, that all and each of your
+random accusations of ancient Jesuits were as true, as all and each are
+undeniably false; allowing that your columns in the Times could arrest a
+reader, unacquainted with continental history, in a state of hesitation and
+doubt; yet he must at least say: "These bad men, like the ancient giants,
+have been exterminated, they have long since disappeared, we have survived
+their criminal practices, why is the alarm bell sounded in the present
+times?"--"But," cries Laicus, "there once was a body of English Jesuits,
+and, during the whole term of their existence, 'our fathers spent restless
+nights and uneasy days. Dr. Sherlocke, living under dread of popery and
+arbitrary power, could enjoy no repose, when every morning threatened to
+usher in the last dawn of England's liberty.' I trust this quotation will
+not be without its use[117]." "Yes, these English Jesuits laid upon us '_a
+yoke, which was too heavy for {321} our fathers to bear_,' and the pope is
+again trying to fasten it upon our shoulders." &c.[118]
+
+I allow it, Sir; there formerly existed a body of English Jesuits. It was
+violently crushed and annihilated more than forty years ago. I look in vain
+for the yoke, which they imposed upon our fathers: I have read something of
+the yoke, which they themselves bore. It is described in letters of blood,
+in the penal statutes of Elizabeth and the first James. During a full
+century, half the gibbets of England witnessed the unrelenting severity of
+persecution, which these injured men quietly and meekly endured. They were
+a body of catholic priests, always esteemed and cherished by English
+catholics; and, at every period of their existence, they counted in their
+society many members of the best and most ancient families among the
+British gentry. They risked their lives by treading on their native soil.
+They devoted themselves to {322} administer the comforts of religion in
+secret to their suffering brethren; and they then slunk back to their
+hiding holes in the hollows of walls and roofs of houses. They never
+possessed a single house, school, or chapel, in which they could recommend
+themselves to their countrymen, by the peaceable functions of their
+profession: they were never otherwise known to the British public than
+when, surprised by priest-catchers, they were dragged to jail, and from
+jail to the gallows. Thus lived the Jesuits, in this their free country,
+from the twenty-second year of Elizabeth to the thirtieth of Charles II.
+This is all the progress that they made, in a full century, towards _their
+own aggrandizement_, which, says Laicus, "is the main object of all their
+labours[119]."
+
+When the scene of blood was finally closed, in 1680, by the execution of
+eight innocent Jesuits in one year, not to mention a dozen {323} others,
+who died in jail, many of them under sentence of death, the Jesuits still
+remained an inoffensive body of catholic missionary priests. Their object
+was to assist their catholic brethren; and, having obtained some
+foundations from the liberality of foreign potentates, they applied
+themselves to give to the expatriated youth of their own country the
+education, which the partiality of the laws denied them at home. In these
+pacific occupations they persevered, without experiencing any jealousy on
+the part of government, even during the two rebellions of 1715 and 1745;
+because, since the accession of the House of Brunswick, it has been a
+principle with our monarchs never to persecute any man for conscience,
+never to harass inoffensive subjects.
+
+At the present day, that royal principle, with all its consequences, and
+they extend far, is widely diffused throughout the empire. Every man in it
+acknowledges the impossibility of converting the millions of his majesty's
+catholic subjects to any other assignable mode of faith; {324} and every
+thinking man must feel the importance and, at the present day, the
+necessity, of attaching these millions to the common cause of the empire,
+and to the cordial support of one common government. Sound policy will
+always forbear to sour and to fret subjects, by jealous suspicions and
+invidious distinctions. It will always incline wise rulers of states to
+provide, for their subjects, ministers of religion, who are firmly attached
+to their government, and who may feel that they have nothing to fear from
+it, while they do not provoke its sword. Such was the conduct of
+continental governments in past times; and they everywhere judged it
+prudent to intrust, in a great measure, the national education of their
+youth to the active order of Jesuits, who, at the same time, were
+preachers, and catechists, and confessors, and visitors of hospitals and
+prisons; and who always had in reserve a surplus of apostles, armed with a
+cross and a breviary, ready to fly to every point of the heavens, to the
+extremities of the globe, to create in the wilds of America and Asia new
+{325} empires for the God of the Gospel, new nations of subjects for
+France, Portugal, and Spain. The political services rendered by Jesuits to
+those crowns have often been acknowledged; yet, alas! how have they been
+requited? When the venerable missioners of the society of Jesuits were
+dragooned out of Portuguese and Spanish America, the loss of millions of
+Indians, whom they had civilized, nay, the loss of the territorial
+possession was loudly predicted to those misguided courts. The first part
+of the prediction has long since been fulfilled. All the power of France,
+Spain, and Portugal, could not replace the old tried missioners of Canada,
+California, Cinaloa, Mexico, Maragnon, Peru, Chili, and Paraguay. The
+Jesuits were destroyed; the civilized natives, deprived of their
+protectors, disbanded, and relapsed into barbarism.
+
+Equally impotent and unavailing was all the mighty power of France, Spain,
+Portugal, and Austria to fill the void, left by the discarded Jesuits, in
+the quiet ministry of schools at home. {326} Cast a retrospect on the
+former state of Europe. There were, in all considerable towns, colleges of
+Jesuits, now, alas! struck to ruins, in which gratuitous education was
+given. They were temples, in which the language of religion hallowed the
+language of the Muses. They were seminaries where future senators,
+magistrates and officers, prelates, priests, and cenobites, &c., received
+their first, that is, the most important part of education. Not even an
+attempt was made to supply the room of the ejected instructors, excepting,
+perhaps, for form sake, in a few great cities; and here what a woful
+substitution! The Jesuits of Clermont college, in Paris, had, for two
+hundred years, quietly instructed and trained the flower of the French
+nobility, to religion, patriotism, and letters. Within a few years after
+the expulsion of the old masters, Clermont college vomited forth, from its
+precincts into France, Robespierre, and Camille des Moulins, and Tallien,
+and Noel, and Freron, and Chenier des Bois, and Porion, and De Pin, and
+other {327} sanguinary demagogues of that execrable period; names of
+monsters, now consigned to everlasting infamy. The game was, indeed, by
+this time, carried rather farther than the Pombals, the Choiseuls, the
+Arandas, and others, who had planned the ruin of the Jesuits, had either
+designed or foreseen; but the mound was thrown down, and how could the
+torrent be withstood?
+
+What thinking man shall now wonder, that the much tried pontiff, Pius VII,
+having, during his captivity, seriously pondered the connexion of causes
+and effects, should wish to retrieve the ancient order of things, should
+even hasten to second the wishes and requests of his fellow sufferers--I
+mean the surviving princes and prelates, who so sorely rue the mistakes of
+their immediate predecessors? It is very remarkable, that the false policy
+of these latter was first discerned and publicly disapproved by two acute
+sovereigns, who were not of the Roman communion, the magnanimous Catherine
+of {328} Russia, and the far famed Frederic III, of Prussia. These
+sovereigns were not ignorant of the various artifices, which had distorted
+the good sense of the catholic princes. They knew how to elude and
+disappoint them, when they were practised upon themselves. The empress
+Catherine especially, in despite of Rome, Versailles, Lisbon, and Madrid,
+maintained, with a resolute and strong hand, the several houses of Jesuits,
+which she found in her new Polish dominions; she would not suffer even the
+smallest alteration to be made, in any of their statutes or practices. Her
+two successors have settled them in their capital, and in other parts of
+their empire; and at this day, the glorious Alexander, far from mistrusting
+those fathers, openly cherishes and favours them, at once as blameless
+ministers of the catholic religion, and as trusty servants of government,
+earnestly labouring to endear the new sceptre of the czars to the catholic
+Poles, lately united to their empire[120].
+
+{329}
+
+Most undoubtedly, next to the purity of religion, the best and dearest
+interest of the Jesuits always was, and always must be, public
+tranquillity, order, and subordination of ranks. In tumults and confusion,
+they must unavoidably be sacrificed. To favour the daring projects of civil
+and religious innovators, their body was devoted to destruction; and the
+extinction of it was presently followed by the universal uproar of the
+Gallic revolution. Hence their name is odious to Buonaparte. In his
+progress through Germany, he drove them from Ausburg, and Friburg, and
+other towns, where the magistrates and inhabitants had succeeded to
+preserve a small remnant of their body, though without hope of perpetuating
+it by succession. In 1805 the court of Naples, convinced of its past error,
+reinstated the Jesuits, to the universal joy of the capital; and
+immediately Napoleon seized {330} the kingdom, and dismissed them. Other
+princes have equally regretted the rash deed of their destruction. Even the
+emperor Joseph II once assured me in private conversation, that he much
+lamented the suppression of the order of the Jesuits. He repeatedly said,
+that, in his mother's time, in which it was accomplished, he was never
+consulted upon the measure, and that he would never have acceded to it.
+
+Our country has happily escaped the horrors of modern revolution; but our
+country has had its alarms. To prevent the recurrence of them, it must
+surely be sound policy to trust, favour, and protect all those persons,
+who, from a motive of self-preservation, as well as of duty, will always
+employ their influence among the lower orders of society, to maintain peace
+and tranquillity in the several religious classes, which form the bulk of
+the people, however denominated. With regard to the numerous body of
+catholics, this line of conduct has been uniformly pursued by their Irish
+bishops, by the {331} English apostolic vicars, and by all the missionary
+priests, Jesuits, and other regulars, who have appeared among us: and, I
+add, in finishing, that, in this respect, they would all be co-operators
+and steady allies of the bishops and clergy of the establishment, who can
+have no greater interest, at the present day, than to preserve general
+tranquillity. Protestant and catholic prelates, with their respective
+dependants, all equally professing zeal for purity of doctrine, though
+differing in their tenets, would thus be friends _usque ad aras_, and
+general peace would be the precious fruits of their agreement. Thus we have
+often seen catholic and protestant legions, Austrians and British, arrayed
+under the same banners, and successfully pursuing their warfare against a
+common enemy. This matter is susceptible of extension, but Laicus would not
+understand it. I finish this Letter, as I ended the first, seriously
+advising him to meddle no more with this subject.
+
+  CLERICUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+APPENDIX;
+
+CONTAINING
+
+THE BULL OF CLEMENT XIII,
+
+AND THE
+
+JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE,
+
+IN FAVOUR OF THE JESUITS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+{335}
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. I.
+
+    _Sanctissimi in Christo Patris et Domini nostri Domini Clementis Divina
+    Providentia Papae XIII, Constitutio qua institutum Societatis Jesu denuo
+    approbatur._
+
+CLEMENS EPISCOPUS SERVUS SERVORUM DEI, AD PERPETUAM REI MEMORIAM.
+
+Apostolicum pascendi Dominici Gregis munus beatissimo apostolo Petro,
+ejusque successori Romano pontifici delatum a Christo Domino, nulla
+locorum, nulla temporum conditio, nullus humanarum rerum respectus, nulla
+denique ratio circumscribere, aut suspendere potest, quominus idem Romanus
+pontifex ad omnes ejusdem officii partes, nulla ex iis praetermissa, nulla
+neglecta, curas suas dirigere debeat, atque omnibus incurrentibus in
+ecclesia necessitatibus providere. Harum partium inter praecipuas, postrema
+non est regularium ordinum approbatorum ab apostolica sede tutelam genere,
+ac fortibus piisque viris, qui eisdem regularibus ordinibus sese solemni
+sacramento addixerunt, suamque pro tuenda, atque {336} amplificanda
+catholica religione, agroque dominico excolendo, strenuam operam impendunt,
+alacritatem addere et animum, languidos et infirmos excitare, et
+corroborare, jacentibus afflictisque consolationem afferre, praecipue vero
+ab ecclesia fidei suae et custodiae concredita, omnia, quae in animarum ruinam
+in dies suboriuntur, scandala summovere.
+
+Institutum societatis Jesu ab homine conditum, cui ab universali ecclesia
+idem, qui sanctis viris cultus et honor tribuitur, a fel. record.
+praedecessoribus nostris Paulo III et Julio itidem III, Paulo IV, Gregorio
+XIII, et Gregorio XIV, Paulo V, diligenti examine perpensum, approbatum,
+saepius confirmatum, et ab iisdem pluribusque aliis ad novemdecim
+praedecessoribus nostris ornatum peculiaribus favoribus et gratiis;
+episcoporum, non modo hujus, sed superiorum etiam aetatum praeconio
+commendatum, ut maxime frugiferum, et fructuosum, et ad promovendum Dei
+cultum, honorem, et gloriam, aeternamque animarum salutem procurandam
+aptissimum; potentissimorum, piissimorumque regum, et clarissimorum in
+Christiana republica principum praesidio, et tutela usque munitum; cujus ex
+disciplina novum prodiere viri in sanctorum, vel beatorum numerum relati,
+quorum tres martyrii gloriam sunt consequuti; a pluribus sanctitate claris
+viris, quos beatos in coelo novimus sempiterna perfrui gloria, collaudatum;
+quod ecclesia universa longo duorum saeculorum spatio in suo sinu aluit et
+fovit, ejusque professoribus praecipuam sacri ministerii partem semper
+commisit magno cum emolumento animarum; quod ipsa denique catholica
+ecclesia in Tridentina synodo declaravit ut pium; hoc idem institutum
+novissime fuerunt, qui per pravas interpretationes, tum privatis {337}
+sermonibus, tum scriptis etiam typis in lucem editis irreligiosum, et
+impium appellare, contumeliis lacerare, probo et ignominia afficere non
+sunt veriti, atque eo devenerunt, ut privata sua non contenti opinione,
+hujusmodi virus de regione in regionem, nullis non adhibitis artibus,
+derivare, atque undequaque diffundere sint aggressi, neque adhuc cessant,
+incautis, si quos inveniant, Christi fidelibus, ut in proprios pertrahant
+sensus, subdole propinare: quo in ecclesiam Dei nihil injurium magis, nihil
+contumeliosius, quasi adeo erraverit turpiter, ut, quod impium, et
+irreligiosum est, solemniter existimaverit Deo carum et pium, eoque decepta
+sit flagitiosius, quo diuturnius, ad annos scilicet amplius ducentos, cum
+maximo animarum detrimento, sinui suo tantam haerere labem, et maculam
+sustinuerit. Huic tanto malo, quod eo longius dissimulatum, tanto altius
+radices agit, viresque acquirit in dies, diutius differre remedium,
+justitia, quae sua cuique asserere et fortiter tueri jubet, et pastoralis
+nostra erga ecclesiam sollicitudo non sinit.
+
+Ut igitur tam gravem injuriam a sponsa ecclesia divinitus nobis concredita,
+atque etiam ab hac apostolica sede propulsemus, et hujusmodi injustas,
+irreligiosasque voces in animarum perniciem, et seductionem, et contra
+omnes aequi, bonique rationes longe lateque diffusas, nostra authoritate
+apostolica compescamus; ut clericis regularibus societatis Jesu, id a nobis
+pro justitia exigentibus, suus maneat status, eadem nostra authoritate
+firmius constabilitus; eorumque nunc temporis summe afflictis rebus aliquod
+afferamus levamen: ut demum venerabilium fratrum nostrorum episcoporum, qui
+ex omnibus regionibus catholicis eandem societatem nobis per litteras {338}
+magnopere commendarunt, et ex ea maximas utilitates in suis quisque
+dioecesibus se capere profitentur, justis desideriis obsecundemus; motu
+proprio, et ex certa scientia, deque apostolicae potestatis plenitudine,
+omnium praedecessorum nostrorum inhaerendo vestigiis, hac nostra perpetuo
+valitura constitutione, eodem modo, ratione et forma, quibus ipsi
+edixerunt, et declararunt, nos quoque edicimus, et declaramus; institutum
+societatis Jesu summopere redolere pietatem et sanctitatem, tum ob
+praecipuum finem, quo maxime spectat, defensionem scilicet, propagationemque
+catholicae religionis, tum ob media, quae adhibet ad ejusmodi finem
+consequendum, quod vel ipsa nos hactenus docuit experientia; cum ex eadem
+disciplina tam multos ad hanc usque aetatem prodiisse novimus orthodoxae
+fidei propugnatores, sacrosque praecones, qui invicto animi robore terra
+marique subiere pericula, ut ad gentes inmanitate barbaras evangelicae
+doctrinae lumen afferrent, et quotquot idem profitentur laudabile
+institutum, partim intentos juventuti religione et bonis artibus erudiendae,
+partim operam dare spiritualibus exercitiis tradendis, partim assidue
+versari in sacramentis praecipue poenitentiae et eucharistiae administrandis
+et ad eorum frequentiorem usum fidelibus excitandis; tum homines in agris
+degentes divini verbi pabulo recreare; ac propterea idem institutum
+societatis Jesu ad haec eximia perpetranda, divina providentia, excitatum,
+ipsi quoque approbamus, et praedecessorum nostrorum approbationes ejusdem
+instituti apostolica auctoritate nostra confirmamus: vota, quibus iidem
+clerici regulares societatis Jesu juxta idem eorum institutum se devovent
+Deo, grata illi et accepta esse declaramus: spiritualia exercitia, {339}
+quae ab iisdem clericis regularibus traduntur fidelibus a mundi strepitu
+semotis per dies aliquot, ut de aeterna fui ipsorum salute serio et unice
+cogitent, ut maxime conducibilia ad reformandos mores, et ad Christianam
+pietatem hauriendam nutriendamque, magnopere probamus, et laudamus:
+congregationes praeterea, seu sodalitia, non modo adolescentium, qui ad
+scholas ventitant societatis Jesu, sed quaevis alia, sive scholarium tantum,
+sive aliorum Christi fidelium tantum, sive utrorumque simul sub invocatione
+beatae Mariae, seu quovis alio titulo erecta, et quae in iis pia opera
+ferventi studio exercentur, probamus, praecipuamque erga beatam Dei
+Genitricem semper Virginem Mariam devotionem, quae in iis sodalitiis alitur,
+et promovetur, magnopere commendamus, nostrorumque fel. record.
+praedecessorum Gregorii XIII, Sixti V, Gregorii XV, et Benedicti XIV
+constitutiones, quibus ea sodalitia approbarunt, nos apostolica auctoritate
+nostra confirmamus, caeterasque omnes constitutiones a Romanis pontificibus
+praedecessoribus nostris in ejusdem instituti societatis Jesu functionum
+approbationem, et laudem conditas, quarum singulas hic haberi volumus pro
+insertis, auctoritate itidem nobis a Deo tradita, apostolicae confirmationis
+nostrae robore, per hanc nostram constitutionem, munitas volumus, et si opus
+sit, velut a nobis ex integro conditas, editasque censeri praecipimus, et
+mandamus.
+
+Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostrae approbationis, et
+confirmationis infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire: si quis autem
+hoc attentare praesumpserit, indignationem Omnipotentis Dei et beatorum
+Petri et Pauli apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum. {340}
+
+Datum Romae apud Sanctam Mariam Majorem*, anno incarnationis Dominicae
+millesimo septingentesimo sexagesimo quarto, septimo idus Januarii,
+pontificatus nostri anno septimo.
+
+  C. Card. Pro-Datarius. N. Card. Antonellus.
+
+  Visa, De Curia J. Manassei.
+
+  L. Eugenius.
+
+  (Loco Plumbi.)
+
+  _Registrata in Secretaria Brevium._
+
+* Curia Romana annum inchoat a Feste Annuntiationis B. Mariae, quod incidit
+in diem 25 Martii, adeoque septimus idus Januarii 1764, coincidit cum 7
+Januarii hujus anni 1765, secundum nostram computandi rationem.
+
+_Translation._
+
+CLEMENT, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD, FOR A PERPETUAL RECORD.
+
+The apostolic office of feeding the Lord's flock, conferred by the Lord
+Christ on the most blessed apostle Peter and his successor the Roman
+pontiff, no state of time or place, no regard of human affairs, in short,
+no consideration whatever, can so circumscribe or suspend as that the same
+Roman pontiff may not direct his care to all the duties of the said office,
+without exception or omission, and provide for all the wants which may
+occur in the church. Among those duties it is not the least to {341} give
+protection to the regular orders approved by the apostolic see, and to
+those worthy and pious men, who have, by a solemn vow, devoted themselves
+to the regular orders, strenuously labouring for the defence and increase
+of the catholic religion, and in cultivating the Lord's vineyard, to
+invigorate and encourage, to animate and confirm the languid and weak, to
+console the downcast and afflicted, but chiefly to remove from the church,
+entrusted to his faith and custody, all scandals, which from time to time
+spring up to the destruction of souls.
+
+The institute of the society of Jesus, composed by a man held in honour by
+the universal church, which sanctifies holy men, has, by our predecessors
+of happy memory Paul III and Julius III, Paul IV, Gregory XIII and Gregory
+XIV, and Paul V, been diligently examined, approved, and often confirmed,
+and by them and nineteen others of our predecessors honoured with peculiar
+favours; has been publicly extolled by bishops, not only of this age but
+former ones, as extremely efficient in promoting the worship, honour, and
+glory of God, and eminently adapted to the salvation of souls; and has been
+patronised by the most powerful and pious kings, and most celebrated
+princes in the Christian republic: from its discipline nine persons have
+been numbered among the saints, three of whom obtained the glory of
+martyrdom; it has received the united praises of many men renowned for
+sanctity, now enjoying eternal glory in heaven; the church has cherished it
+in her bosom for the long space of two centuries, and has ever committed
+the chief part of the sacred ministry to its professors, with great gain of
+souls; finally, it was pronounced pious by the catholic church herself in
+the council of Trent: yet there have lately {342} appeared some, who, by
+wicked interpretations, have dared, not only in conversation but in
+writings and publications, to call this very institute irreligious and
+impious, to revile it, and represent it as wicked and shameful; and have
+gone such lengths, that, not content with their own private thoughts, they
+have endeavoured, using every art, to convey the like poison from country
+to country, and to pour it out everywhere; nor have they yet ceased,
+where-ever they can find any of the faithful off their guard, to instil
+craftily their own notions into their minds; than which there can be
+nothing more injurious, nothing more offensive to the church of God, as if
+she had so shamefully erred, as solemnly to deem what is impious and
+irreligious devout and acceptable to God, and had been the more
+scandalously imposed upon for having so long, namely, for more than two
+hundred years, with the greatest loss of souls, suffered such a stain to
+remain in her bosom. Neither justice, which commands that all should
+receive what belongs to them and be protected in their rights, nor my
+pastoral solicitude for the church, can suffer any farther delay in putting
+a stop to this so great evil, which shoots its roots the deeper the longer
+it remains unnoticed.
+
+In order, therefore, that we may remove so serious an injury from the
+espoused church divinely committed to our charge, and also from this
+apostolic see; and that, by our apostolic authority, we may check such
+unjust and impious assertions, spread far and wide to the seduction and
+ruin of souls, and entirely regardless of equity and reason; that the
+constitution of the regular clerks of the society of Jesus may remain
+undisturbed, according to their appeal to us for justice, and be more
+firmly established by the same our authority, and that we may afford {343}
+them consolation in the present grievous state of their affairs; and,
+lastly, that we may comply with the just desires of our venerable brothers
+the bishops, who, from every part of the catholic world, have written to us
+letters greatly extolling the said society, all declaring that they were of
+the greatest use to them in their respective dioceses; of our own accord
+and certain knowledge, and by the plenitude of the apostolic power,
+following the footsteps of all our predecessors, in this our constitution
+to be in perpetual force, in the same mode and form in which they have
+proclaimed and declared we also proclaim and declare, that the institute of
+the society of Jesus is replete with piety and holiness, as well on account
+of the chief end it has in view, namely, the defence and propagation of the
+catholic religion, as on account of the means which it directs to be used
+for that end, hitherto confirmed to us by experience itself; for we know
+that, even down to these times, its discipline has produced many defenders
+of the orthodox faith, and pious preachers, who, with unshaken constancy of
+mind, have encountered dangers by sea and by land to bear the light of the
+gospel to barbarous nations; and, indeed, those who profess the said
+laudable institute are always earnestly employed, some in educating youth
+in the practice of religion and the learned sciences, others in the
+direction of spiritual exercises, others again in the assiduous
+administration of the sacraments, especially those of penance and the
+eucharist, in exciting the faithful to a frequent use of them; likewise in
+refreshing the inhabitants of country places with the divine food of the
+word of God: and as it evidently appears, that the said institute of the
+society of Jesus has been established by the Divine Providence {344} for
+these great ends, we also approve it, and, in virtue of our apostolical
+authority, we confirm the approbation of our predecessors bestowed on the
+said institute: we declare, that the vows by which the said regular clerks
+of the society of Jesus devote themselves, according to the said institute,
+to God, are acceptable and pleasing to him: we approve in the highest
+degree of the spiritual exercises, which the regulars of this society
+recommend to the use of the faithful, who occasionally retire from the
+noise of the world to meditate in serious solitude on the means of
+obtaining eternal salvation, as being highly conducive to the reformation
+of manners, and to the establishing and nourishing of Christian piety: we
+likewise approve of their congregations or associations; and not only of
+those for the use of youth, who attend the schools of the society of Jesus,
+but also of all other congregations, whether established for scholars only,
+or for others of the faithful in Christ, of either or both at once,
+dedicated to the blessed Mary, under whatever title they are formed, in
+which pious works are fervently practised, especially that particular
+devotion towards the blessed Virgin, which these institutions nourish and
+promote; and we, in virtue of our apostolical authority, confirm the
+constitutions of our predecessors of happy memory, Gregory XIII, Sextus V,
+Gregory XV, and Benedict XIV, by which they approved of these associations,
+together with all other constitutions enacted by our predecessors the Roman
+pontiffs, in approbation of the offices of the said institute, each one of
+which we wish to be considered as here inserted and confirmed by the
+strength of our apostolic authority transmitted to us by God, as well as
+effectually protected by this our constitution; and, if it be necessary,
+{345} we desire and order, that they may be considered as fresh
+constitutions, enacted and promulged by us in due form.
+
+It is not, therefore, allowable for any person to infringe, upon any
+account, this decree of our approbation and confirmation, or rashly to
+attempt to oppose its authority: and, if any one should be so presumptuous
+as to attempt it, be it known to him, that he will incur the indignation of
+Almighty God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.
+
+Given at Rome, at St. Mary the Greater, &c. &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+{346}
+
+No. II.
+
+    _The Judgment of the Bishops of France, concerning the Doctrine, the
+    Government, the Conduct, and Usefulness of the French Jesuits._
+
+    MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,
+
+The noble sentiments of faith and religion, which have ever distinguished
+our kings, have induced your majesty, after the example of your august
+predecessors, to suspend the decision of an affair so closely connected
+with the doctrine and discipline of the church, till you had taken the
+advice of the bishops of your realm.
+
+As the time your majesty was pleased to allow us for examining the points
+in question was very short, we applied ourselves to the task with more than
+ordinary diligence and assiduity; it being one of our chief duties to
+concur with your majesty's pious views in whatever it may please you to
+propose for the good of religion, or for the maintaining of good order and
+tranquillity in the kingdom. We have therefore examined, with all the care
+which the importance of the subject required, the different articles,
+concerning which your majesty has done us the honour to consult us, and we
+think it our duty to communicate our sentiments in the following manner:--
+{347}
+
+ARTICLE I. "Of what use the Jesuits may be in France: the advantages or
+inconveniences that may attend the various functions, which they exercise
+under our authority."
+
+The end for which the Jesuits' order was first instituted being the
+education of youth; the ministerial labours, catechising, preaching, and
+administring the sacraments; the propagation of the Gospel; the conversion
+of infidel nations; and the gratuitous exercise of all manner of works of
+charity towards their neighbour; it is evident this institution is
+calculated both for the good of religion and the advantage of the state.
+
+This consideration induced pope Paul III to approve the new order by the
+bull _Regimini_, 1540; and the popes, his successors, by long experience,
+being sensible of the great advancement of religion, owing chiefly to the
+labours of the Jesuits, favoured them with the most distinguishing marks of
+their good-will and protection. The fathers of the council of Trent call it
+a holy institution, and, by an extraordinary privilege, dispense with the
+religious of this society in the general law they had made for other orders
+concerning their vows. The great promoter of piety and church discipline,
+St. Charles Borromoeus, took care to inform the fathers of that council how
+much he esteemed this order, and how desirous the pope was to favour those
+religious, on account of the visible advantages arising to the church from
+their zealous endeavours. The ambassadors sent by other princes to
+represent them in that council had the same favourable opinion of the
+Jesuits, as plainly appears from their proposing the establishment of these
+religious in Germany, as the most efficacious means to restore religion and
+piety in the empire. {348}
+
+However, it cannot be denied, but the novelty and singularity of this
+order, the many privileges granted them by the popes, and the great extent
+and generality of the exercises in which they are conversant, according to
+their calling, exposed them to the jealousy and opposition of other
+religious orders. The universities, the mendicant orders, and others, tried
+all means to hinder their establishment in France: your majesty's
+parliaments, in their remonstrances, laid open the many inconveniences,
+that might attend their being admitted into this kingdom: Eustace de
+Bellay, the then bishop of Paris, opposed them, and even the clergy of
+France, in their assembly at Poissy, anno 1561, expressed a diffidence and
+apprehension, that the Jesuits might encroach upon their rights; for,
+though they consented to their admission, they did it with such
+restrictions and limitations as then seemed proper to secure the rights and
+jurisdiction of the bishops.
+
+Anno 1574, the clergy of your kingdom, having been apprised of the credit
+and the approbation this institution had gained in the council of Trent, in
+conformity to the judgment of that general assembly, declare by their
+deputies, upon the article concerning the profession of novices after one
+year's probation, that, by _this rule, their intention was not any way to
+derogate from or to make any change in the good constitutions of the clerks
+of the society of Jesus, approved by the holy apostolic see_.
+
+It appears even, that the Jesuits, by their behaviour, had got the better
+of those prejudices, which had formerly been conceived against their order,
+seeing that, in the year 1610, when so great a storm was raised against
+them, Henry de Gondy, bishop of Paris, gives their {349} character in words
+very different from those of his predecessor, Eustace de Bellay, _viz._
+that _the order of the Jesuits was greatly serviceable both to church and
+state, on account of their learning, piety, and exemplary behaviour_.
+
+Hence it was, that, in the general assembly of the states, anno 1614 and
+1615, both the clergy and the nobility so pressingly desired the
+re-establishment of the Jesuits, for the instruction of youth, in the city
+of Paris, and the erection of other colleges in the different towns of the
+kingdom: this they recommended to their deputies as a matter of the
+greatest concernment, desiring they would most earnestly address his
+majesty, in order to obtain a favourable and speedy answer; _the assembly
+being sensible how greatly the order of the Jesuits, by their learning and
+industry, had contributed, and, with God's assistance, would again
+contribute towards the maintaining of faith and religion, the extirpation
+of heresies, the restoration of piety and morality_, &c. Again, in the
+assembly of the clergy, anno 1617, we find the Jesuits' schools proposed as
+the most proper means to revive and imprint piety and religion in the minds
+of the people.
+
+Nothing, perhaps, is better calculated to convince us how high an idea your
+majesty's royal predecessors had of the usefulness of this body of men,
+than the patents, which they were pleased to grant, for the erecting many
+of their colleges in your dominions: this was particularly remarkable in
+the letters patent, granted by your majesty's great grandfather Louis XIV,
+of glorious memory, for their establishment in the college of Clermont,
+wherein he says, _that in this he had no other view than to_ {350}
+_support, countenance, and encourage those religious in their laborious
+employments for the education of youth in all useful sciences, and
+particularly in the knowledge of whatever may concern their duty towards
+God, and towards those who are placed over them for the government of the
+people_. But this he afterwards expressed in a more emphatic manner, when
+he was pleased to give his own august name to that college.
+
+The Jesuits are also of great service in our dioceses, by enforcing and
+giving new life and vigour to piety and religion, by their sermons, their
+spiritual instructions, their missionary excursions, their congregations,
+spiritual retreats, &c., performed with our approbation and authority.
+
+For these reasons we are persuaded, that to deprive the people of their
+instruction would be extremely prejudicial to our dioceses. And, in
+particular with regard to the education and instruction of youth, it would
+be a very difficult task to find persons capable of serving the public to
+equal advantage, especially in the country towns, where there are no
+universities.
+
+The religious of other orders, who, by their vows and state of life, are
+not devoted to this kind of labour, as they are little conversant in the
+method of teaching, and strangers to that disagreeable confinement and
+subjection, which is inseparable from that employment, are too much taken
+up with the other necessary observances of their order to give that
+constant and due attendance, which is requisite for the education of youth.
+
+As to other clerks regular and priests living in community, they have not a
+sufficient number of persons to supply the place of the Jesuits. The
+secular clergy, {351} indeed, with the allowance of the bishop, may
+undertake this employment: but, not having been brought up to it from their
+youth, they would not much relish this kind of life, nor have they equal
+experience or skill in the business. Add to this, that, as most of our
+dioceses have not near a sufficient number of priests to answer all the
+duties of the ministry, it would not be possible for us to fill up the
+places that would become vacant by the removal of the Jesuits.
+
+Shall we then have recourse to the laity? alas! few of these are to be
+found of that turn of mind as willingly to embrace so laborious and
+disagreeable an employment as is that of teaching; fewer still, whose
+talents and qualifications are equal to it.
+
+The Jesuits in France are possessed of a hundred colleges: if these were
+removed, where could we find a sufficient number of schoolmasters and
+professors of equal parts to fill up the vacancies in all these colleges?
+As the Jesuits make up one community and incorporated body of men, they
+have this peculiar advantage, that, amongst all the religious, whom they
+train up to this exercise, they can make choice of such as are most likely
+to succeed and to answer the expectation of the public; and, if any one
+should misbehave, in a moment's warning they can provide another in his
+room; an advantage not to be expected in religious orders that are not so
+strictly addicted to this employment; nor amongst persons, who, though
+otherwise duly qualified, still want numbers for the business; much less
+amongst laymen, who, by their state of life, are free to choose for
+themselves, and no way concerned about their successors.
+
+Adhering, therefore, to the judgment of the vicars of {352} Christ and of
+the council of Trent concerning the society of Jesus, and in conformity to
+the testimony, which the clergy of your majesty's kingdom, the kings your
+august predecessors, and your whole kingdom, have given of the usefulness
+of the Jesuits in France, we are persuaded, that, if due care be taken to
+prevent any abuse, that may insinuate itself in the exercise of their
+functions, this religious body cannot but be of very great service both to
+church and state.
+
+In our examination of the third article, we shall have the honour to
+present your majesty with some regulations, which we conceive to be the
+best adapted for preventing all such abuses.
+
+ARTICLE II. "How the Jesuits behave in their instructions and in their own
+conduct, with regard to certain opinions which strike at the safety of the
+king's person; as likewise with regard to the received doctrine of the
+clergy of France, contained in the declaration of the year 1682; and in
+general with regard to their opinions on the other side of the Alps."
+
+Our history informs us, that, in the infancy of the society in France, the
+Calvinists used their utmost endeavour to hinder the growth of a body of
+men raised on purpose to oppose their errors, and to stop the spreading
+contagion: to this end they dispersed into all parts a multitude of
+pamphlets, in which the Jesuits were arraigned, as professing a doctrine
+inconsistent with the safety of his majesty's sacred person; being well
+assured, that the imputation of so atrocious a crime was the shortest and
+securest way to bring about their ruin. These libels soon raised a
+prejudice against the Jesuits in {353} the minds of all those, who had any
+interest in opposing their establishment in France, and some communities
+even joined in the impeachment. The crimes, which are now laid to their
+charge, in the numberless writings, that swarm in all parts of your
+majesty's dominions, are no other than those which were maliciously forged
+and published above one hundred and fifty years ago. It is not from such
+libels as these, that we are to form a just idea or rational judgment of
+the Jesuits' doctrine or behaviour: such wild and groundless accusations
+did not deserve our attention, and the little notice we took of them may be
+a convincing proof to your majesty of the Jesuits' innocence.
+
+And, indeed, the inviolable fidelity of the bishops of your kingdom, and
+their sincere attachment to the crown, is too well known to leave any room
+for suspecting, that they could be either so blinded as not to discover
+that, which, as is pretended, is visible to the whole world; or, if they
+had perceived it, that they should so far have forgot their duty to God, to
+religion, to your majesty, as to encourage such treasonable doctrine by a
+criminal silence, and trust the most sacred functions of the ministry to
+persons convicted of publicly professing the same.
+
+We will not here pretend to refute or to give an exact account of a
+doctrine, which will not bear the light, and can no way be exposed to the
+public without danger of infection; of which we may truly say, what St.
+Paul said of a certain vice, "that its very name should never be heard
+amongst Christians." And it is with the greatest grief we see all the
+particulars of this damnable doctrine publicly explained in the French
+tongue, and purposely {354} dispersed in all parts of your kingdom in an
+infinity of libels, the reading of which has done more prejudice to your
+majesty's subjects than could possibly have been caused by reading the
+fanatic authors themselves, who have treated of that subject. We shall only
+observe, that, in order to render the Jesuits more odious to the public,
+care has been taken to hold them forth as the first broachers of a
+doctrine, that was published long before they had a being. Their enemies
+have spared no pains to confound and perplex all our ideas concerning this
+doctrine, jumbling together, at all events, right or wrong, truth and
+falsehood, in order to bring the Jesuits in guilty: they are ever urging
+against them a certain period of our history, which, as it equally involves
+all states and conditions[121], ought to be blotted out of our annals, and
+never more be mentioned amongst us.
+
+Whatever may be objected against the foreign Jesuits Mariana, Santarel,
+Suarez, and Busembaum, this is most certain, that the decree of their
+general, Acquaviva, appeared so satisfactory to your parliament of Paris,
+that, in the year 1614, they desired to have the same renewed; and it is
+well known, that, when those books first appeared in France, the Jesuits,
+in their declarations to the parliaments, disowned them in so clear,
+precise, and express terms, as did honour to their body, and gained them
+the applause of the whole nation. Lastly, their behaviour in the year 1682,
+and the declarations, which they have lately made to us, and which they
+desire to have registered at the respective offices in our spiritual
+courts, as a lasting and authentic testimony of their loyalty and fidelity,
+leave no room to doubt of their abhorrence and detestation of {355} any
+doctrine or opinion that may in any wise intrench upon the safety of the
+sacred person of sovereigns; or of their entire acquiescence to the maxims
+established by the clergy of your kingdom, in the four articles of 1682.
+
+We must likewise observe to your majesty, that the instructions of the
+Jesuits in our dioceses are all performed in public; innumerable persons,
+of all conditions, are witnesses of what they teach; and we have the honour
+to assure your majesty, that they never were accused at our tribunals of
+teaching any such doctrine as is now imputed to them. Let us inquire of
+those, who have been brought up in their colleges, who have frequented
+their missions, their congregations, their retreats, we are persuaded there
+is not a man in the nation, who can attest, that he ever heard them teach a
+doctrine contrary to the safety of your majesty's person, or to the
+received maxims of the kingdom. On the contrary, in justice to their
+character, we must all confess, that the constant theme and subject of
+their school exercises is to celebrate the memorable deeds and heroic
+actions of our monarchs, and their whole study to impress in their hearers
+the most dutiful sentiments of loyalty and respect towards your majesty.
+
+ARTICLE III. "The conduct of the Jesuits with regard to their subordination
+to bishops; and whether, in the exercise of their functions, they do not
+encroach on the pastoral rights and privileges."
+
+It cannot be denied but that, if the Jesuits were to avail themselves of
+the many and great privileges which, at different times, have been granted
+to them by the see apostolic, they could not be said to live subordinate,
+either to bishops or to their ecclesiastical superiors. But {356} we are to
+observe, that these privileges were granted them by a communication and
+participation of such as had been granted to the mendicant orders, and to
+the other religious, long before they came into the world; and, with regard
+to these, we find a decree in the _explanation of their rule_ (art. xii, p.
+447), that they are to make use of their privileges with the greatest
+caution and moderation, and with no other view than for the spiritual
+advantage of their neighbour; for, being bound by their fourth vow,
+immediately upon the first notice of his holiness's command, to embark, in
+order to preach the Gospel to the most remote and barbarous nations, these
+privileges become absolutely necessary in places where neither bishops nor
+other pastors are to be found. We may also take notice, both with regard to
+the bull of Paul III, and those of his successors, that there is a wide
+difference between their approbation of the first plan of the institute, or
+of the additions that were afterwards made for the perfecting of the same,
+and the _privileges_ granted to that society, which are merely accessory to
+the institute; for these bulls, being written in the ordinary style of the
+court of Rome, the dispositions made by them cannot be brought into
+precedent, or have any other force than that which is allowed them by the
+pope's decretals and the laws of the kingdom, both which have long since
+declared, that privileges granted by the court of Rome, contrary to the
+jurisdiction of bishops, or derogatory to the due subordination of the
+faithful to their pastors, are of no effect without their consent, and, if
+they any way concern the state, without the approbation of the sovereign.
+
+However, we find, even to the year 1670, that the Jesuits, as well as the
+other mendicant orders, used their {357} best endeavours to maintain these
+privileges, against the common law and the jurisdiction of bishops, on
+pretence, that the discipline of the council of Trent, which had abolished
+them, was not received in France. We read in the acts of our bishopricks,
+that attempts to this purpose were made by the Jesuits at Quimper, at Agen,
+at Sens, and at Rhodez, where, in conjunction with the mendicant orders,
+they carried on their suits at law for a long time against the bishops of
+those dioceses.
+
+But since that time the Jesuits are not known to have formed any such
+pretensions; on the contrary, they have renounced all those privileges,
+which may any way seem to intrench, either on the established maxims of the
+kingdom, or on the liberties of the Gallican church; and, as they still
+persist in that renunciation, and have expressed the same, in the clearest
+terms, in the declaration, which they lately presented to us, nothing more
+can reasonably be demanded of them with regard to this article.
+
+But to prevent any abuse, that possibly may hereafter arise, and to keep
+religious orders in due subjection and subordination to their ordinaries,
+after having examined, with all diligence, the complaints that at different
+times have been made by the bishops, concerning the attempts of the
+Jesuits, and of other religious, contrary to the rights of pastors and the
+episcopal jurisdiction, we have agreed on the following regulations,
+grounded on the canon law and the discipline of the Gallican church.
+
+1. That the Jesuits and all other religious, who pretend to be exempted
+from the jurisdiction of their bishops, and to hold an immediate dependence
+on the see apostolic, shall not be allowed to preach or confess in our
+dioceses, {358} without having been examined by the bishop, or his vicars,
+or others, whom he may appoint for that purpose, and without being approved
+by him; which approbation he may limit or revoke, as he shall think fit.
+
+2. That they shall not be permitted to receive children to their first
+communion, though they be their own scholars, without the consent of the
+curate or bishop of the diocese; and, during the fifteen days of Easter,
+they shall not hear any annual confessions without their permission.
+
+3. That they shall send all their penitents, even their own scholars and
+pensioners, to receive the paschal communion in the parish church, unless
+they have a dispensation from the curate or bishop.
+
+4. That they shall not confess any person that is in danger of death
+without advertising the curate thereof.
+
+5. That in the missionary excursions, which they make with our consent,
+they shall take care that the curates be not defrauded of their dues.
+
+6. That they shall not admit any priest, whether secular or regular, though
+otherwise approved, to assist them in the labour of their missions, without
+the express consent of the bishop.
+
+7. In their lessons of divinity, whether public or private, they shall
+teach the four propositions of the French clergy, assembled 1682; and, as
+often as the bishop of the diocese or the archbishop shall require it, they
+shall be bound to let them see their books or lectures of philosophy, or of
+moral or scholastic divinity, which they make use of in their seminaries or
+other houses where they teach, either in public or private.
+
+8. They shall not publicly defend any theses, {359} without having them
+first examined and approved by the bishop.
+
+9. Whenever it shall seem good to the bishop, he shall be allowed to see
+and examine the books they make use of for the instruction of their own
+colleges or other houses.
+
+10. In teaching the rudiments of the Christian religion, they shall use the
+catechism of the diocese where they live. In one word, the bishops shall
+have full inspection and superintendence over all their instructions,
+whether public or private.
+
+11. They shall not gather any congregation, or set on foot any
+confraternity or retreat, without the consent of the bishop, who is to
+judge whether the faithful may not thereby be hindered from duly
+frequenting their parish churches, a thing so earnestly recommended by the
+sacred canons.
+
+12. These congregations shall never be allowed to meet at the hours when
+the office or divine service is performed in the parish church; and the
+bishop shall regulate these meetings as he shall judge most expedient for
+the advancement of piety and religion in his diocese; and, when he shall
+think fit, may repeal any such licence before granted.
+
+13. They shall not be allowed to publish any indulgence without having it
+first examined and approved by the bishop. By all which we do not intend
+any way to derogate from any other rights, which the French clergy may have
+over the Jesuits or other regulars.
+
+14. In the exercise of the different duties of their calling they shall not
+encroach upon the rights of chapters, curates, universities, or any body of
+men, who are permitted to teach in this kingdom. {360}
+
+We are sensible of the great advantages that must attend the due execution
+of these regulations, for the maintaining of true faith and morality, for
+preserving the liberties of the Gallican church, and securing to bishops,
+chapters, universities, and to all orders of men, the invaluable possession
+of their rights and privileges; for which reason we humbly implore your
+majesty's authority and protection, which alone can give them due sanction
+and stability, to the end that all your subjects may teach one and the same
+doctrine, and, by a due subordination of all the parts, may contribute to
+the good order, peace, and well being both of church and state.
+
+ARTICLE IV. "Whether it may not be convenient to moderate and set bounds to
+the authority which the general of the Jesuits exercises in France."
+
+We have examined the Jesuits' institute with the greatest care and
+attention, as to what concerns the authority of the general, or the
+obligation of obedience in the subjects; and have the honour to assure your
+majesty, that we have found these as much limited and restrained by the
+Jesuits' rule as by that of any other order. For instance; parte vi,
+Declarat Constitut. tom. i, p. 408, it is said, _Let our obedience be
+always most perfect, as well in the execution as in our will and judgment,
+performing all that is commanded with the greatest alacrity, spiritual joy,
+and perseverance; persuading ourselves, that all is right which is
+commanded; denying and rejecting, by_ a kind of blind obedience, _any
+private judgment or opinion of our own to the contrary. And thus we are to
+behave with regard to whatever our superior may command, when_ {361} _it
+does not appear to be any way sinful, as has been elsewhere observed by
+us._
+
+Hence it plainly appears, that the Jesuits are never bound to obey their
+general's orders, when, by obeying him, they would be found guilty of the
+least sin at God's tribunal. We find, that most other religious orders,
+according to the stile of their rule, profess obedience to all their
+superiors' commands, which are not repugnant to faith or morality. But what
+danger can be apprehended, either to the church or state, from that
+obedience, which is not sinful on any account, which is neither prejudicial
+to religion nor hurtful to the rights or properties of any of your
+majesty's subjects? We may add, that this rule of obedience doth not
+particularly concern the general, but equally regards all other subordinate
+superiors, who, by virtue of their subjects' vow, have equal claim to their
+obedience: whence it also appears, that St. Ignatius did not think fit to
+vest the general with any other authority over the whole society than that
+which the superior of every religious community ought to have over his
+subjects.
+
+Those expressions, _that they are to abandon themselves to the disposition
+of their superior, as if they were a dead body_, &c. cannot give offence to
+any but such as are strangers to the language of the ascetick writers, and
+who are not able to form an idea of any perfection or Christian
+accomplishment, that doth not suit with their own state and condition. We
+should never end were we to lay before your majesty what we find in the
+fathers and masters of a spiritual life, or in the rules of other religious
+orders, concerning this article of obedience; it may suffice to observe,
+that they all make use of the {362} like or even harder expressions; all
+propose the same examples and comparisons, or others to the same purpose.
+
+But, after all, it is evident, by the fundamental law and constitution of
+the society, that a general congregation has a far greater power and
+authority over the general than he can pretend to over the society. The
+same general assembly, or representative body of the order, which creates
+him general, names also and appoints his assistants, who have a watchful
+eye upon his behaviour, and, when they observe any great fault in his
+conduct, or defect in his administration, are bound by oath to inform
+against him, and to denounce him to the society; and if the case be
+notorious and scandalous, or if there be danger in delay, the provincials
+or superiors of provinces may convene themselves without waiting for the
+summons or writs[122] from the assistants, and immediately proceed to the
+arraignment, trial, and deposition of the general[123], {363} whom also, if
+they judge it necessary, they may dismiss and eject out of the society.
+There is not, perhaps, to be found a general of any other religious body,
+who has so absolute and perpetual a dependence on his order; it being well
+known, that the general of the Jesuits has not power to dispose of the
+least thing in his own behalf or to his private advantage, nor can so much
+as command any other diet or apparel, than that which is assigned him by
+the society[124].
+
+It is true, indeed, that the general alone can dispose of all the places
+and employments of the order, but this he cannot do without taking the
+advice of his counsel[125]; and nothing, perhaps, discovers the wisdom of
+St. Ignatius more than his having left all places of trust in his order to
+the free disposal of the general, by which means he has secured the
+subjects from that partiality and injustice which might be apprehended from
+their immediate and subaltern superiors, who, by the intercession and
+solicitation of friends, relations, or benefactors, are too often prevailed
+upon to prefer persons of little merit to others more deserving. He has
+effectually banished from his order all intrigues and cabals for the
+gaining of preferment, evils which are not easily guarded against, and are
+{364} often the cause of fatal divisions in communities, of scandalous
+law-suits, of jealousies, hatred, and the entire subversion of union,
+charity, and the primitive spirit of the order. St. Ignatius has, with
+great judgment, provided against this disorder, and secured the peace and
+regularity of the whole body, by stripping all the places of preferment in
+this society of those temporal advantages, which are commonly annexed to
+them in other orders, whence the most ambitious person amongst them will
+hardly think it worth his while to make interest for a place, which carries
+with it no natural allurement of ease or convenience, and has little else
+but the empty name of superiority to recommend it.
+
+In an order, that was to be wholly devoted to the service of the public, it
+was necessary, that such a plan of government should be established as
+should leave no room for subjects to doubt, but that all the places and
+employments were given to persons the most deserving, and, according to the
+best rules of human prudence, the most capable of filling them to
+advantage. This assurance frees them from all anxiety and solicitude
+concerning the dispositions of superiors, either with regard to themselves
+or others, and they have no other concern but to comply faithfully with the
+duties of their institute, to perfect themselves and benefit their
+neighbour in that employment, which is assigned them by their superior,
+whose orders and appointment they respectfully embrace as the disposition
+of Divine Providence.
+
+With regard to the authority of the general over the temporalities of the
+order, we find[126], that he has power {365} to make all kinds of contracts
+in behalf of the colleges and houses of the society, though he is not
+allowed to convert any thing to his own private use or advantage[127]. He
+cannot transfer the revenues of one college to another, nor assign any part
+of them for the maintenance of _Profest Houses_[128], which are not to have
+any rents, but are entirely to subsist upon charity. The donations, which
+are made to the body, without being assigned to any determinate use, are at
+the general's disposal[129], who may sell them, and annex them to any
+house, as he shall judge most expedient for promoting God' honour and the
+good {366} of religion; but with this caution, that, when such donations
+are made by persons who enter into the society, they be not alienated from
+the province[130], unless, perhaps, the great distress of some house in
+another province should call for immediate relief. And, with regard to
+places that are subject to the dominion of different princes, the general
+is not allowed to make any such translation of property from one territory
+to another, without their consent[131], but he can never appropriate to his
+own use, or make over to his relations, any part of that which is given to
+the society, without incurring certain danger of being deposed from his
+office[132]. Hence it is plain, that the {367} general is no more than a
+kind of steward and administrator of the goods and possessions belonging to
+the society, the property whereof is wholly vested in the colleges and
+other houses.
+
+It doth not appear to us, that this manner of administration can be any way
+prejudical to the colleges of the order; neither can it with reason give
+umbrage to the state, or cause any distrust in the government, their
+general having no power to dispose of the possessions belonging to the
+colleges in your majesty's dominions, contrary to the laws and established
+customs of your kingdom; nor can it be supposed, that such an attempt would
+ever escape the vigilance of our magistrates, the faithful depositaries of
+your majesty's authority.
+
+But it may appear dangerous to some, that so many thousands of your
+majesty's subjects should have a dependence upon one man, and be engaged to
+a foreigner by motives of conscience and inclination; and it may seem,
+that, in times of trouble and intestine divisions, the danger is still more
+to be apprehended. In answer to this objection we beg leave to observe,
+that, in your majesty's dominions, there are other religious orders far
+more numerous than the Jesuits, and who, by their vow of obedience, have no
+less dependence on their foreign generals; whence it is highly
+unreasonable, that the Jesuits should be marked out as the only object of
+our fears and jealousies on that account: to say the truth, there is no
+society or body of men in the nation, who may not give trouble to the
+state, and some cause of fear, {368} should they deviate from their duty,
+or forget the obedience due to their lawful superiors. Are we then
+immediately to suppress all these most serviceable corporations, and
+deprive ourselves of that which is a real good and advantage to the whole
+kingdom, for the apprehension of a remote and imaginary evil? The Jesuits
+certainly are not less bound by your majesty's laws than the rest of your
+subjects; and, if from things past we may be allowed to form a judgment of
+their future behaviour, we have little or no reason to fear any disturbance
+from that quarter. It is well known, that, in the year 1681, during our
+disputes with Rome concerning benefices, the pope's briefs were conveyed
+into the hands of the Jesuits in France, with express orders, both from his
+holiness and from their general, to disperse them immediately about the
+kingdom; but they, without much deliberation, on the 20th of June, produced
+the packet in open court, and, by their candid behaviour in that critical
+conjuncture, deserved that remarkable compliment from the first president,
+M. de Novion, _that it was lucky those papers had fallen into the hands of
+persons of their prudence and discretion: that they had too good heads to
+be imposed upon, and hearts too loyal to be corrupted_[133]. We are also
+assured by the general advocate, Talon, _that no one could reasonably tax
+the Jesuits, whose behaviour on that occasion was fully justified by the
+bitter reproach and severe reprimand they afterwards underwent, both from
+the pope and their own general_[134]. This one short passage of our history
+may convince us, {369} more effectually than all the reasonings in the
+world, that the Jesuits, according to their rules, do not profess any other
+obedience to their general than is consistent with their duty towards their
+king and country.
+
+We are moreover convinced, that this obedience of the Jesuits to their
+general, as prescribed by their rule, and their fourth vow, by which they
+cannot be fully bound to the order till they have attained the age of
+thirty-three, are the two essential principles, and, as it were, the
+foundation stones, on which the whole edifice of their constitution is
+raised: these cannot be changed without overthrowing the whole building;
+neither can any alteration be made in them without forming a new
+constitution, very different from that to which the Jesuits have bound
+themselves by vow. These two fundamental articles discover to us the
+extraordinary wisdom of their founder, who, with great judgment and
+forecast, has thus provided against the growth of any dangerous
+irregularity in the order, and secured such a constant tenor of government,
+as was necessary to qualify the religious subjects for the great duties of
+their calling.
+
+It was, doubtless, for these reasons, that the council of Trent so highly
+commended and approved of this institute: that the late pope, Benedict XIV,
+in the bull _Devotum_, anno 1746, called them most wise laws and
+institutions, _ex praescripto sapientissimarum legum et constitutionum_,
+&c.: that the clergy of France, anno 1574, stiled them _good and sound
+regulations_: lastly, that the great Bossuet assures us, that in this _rule
+he discovered numberless strokes of consummate wisdom_[135]. Which {370}
+testimonies are greatly confirmed by the example of those other religious
+orders, which have sprung up in the church since the first establishment of
+the Jesuits, whose founders have framed good part of their rule after the
+model of this institute.
+
+All which things considered, we are of opinion, that no alteration can be
+made in the Jesuits' rule, with regard to the power and authority of the
+general. And your majesty will give us leave to observe, that, if it were
+expedient to make such a reform, it would neither be agreeable to the
+ecclesiastical law, nor to the avowed practice of all ages, nor in
+particular to the discipline of the church of France and the established
+maxims of your courts of parliament, to undertake an affair of this nature
+without the concurrence and joint consent of his holiness the supreme
+pastor of the church, of the bishops of France, and of a general
+congregation of the Jesuits: we might add, without the consent of all the
+professed Jesuits, as such an alteration in their dependence on their
+general would affect the very vitals of the order, and change the whole
+constitution.
+
+For these one hundred and fifty years, our history affords one only
+instance (of 1681) in which this authority of their general might have been
+any way prejudicial to the state; and if, on that occasion, the loyalty of
+the French Jesuits underwent a very severe trial, it had no other effect
+than to convince the whole kingdom how well they deserved that honourable
+testimony of your parliament, that their prudence guarded them against all
+surprise, and their loyalty against corruption.
+
+But nothing, perhaps, can be of greater weight in this matter than the
+judgment of your majesty's royal {371} predecessor Henry IV, of glorious
+memory[136], who, in the midst of all his troubles, when the kingdom was in
+the greatest ferment, and he beset by persons, who spared no pains to
+instil into his mind the greatest distrust of the Jesuits, desired no other
+security for their good behaviour than this alone, that he might have one
+of that body ever near his person in quality of preacher to his majesty,
+and that a French assistant should be established with the general at Rome.
+
+Your majesty is still possessed of the same security; and, since we are
+taught by the experience of a hundred and fifty years, that this is
+abundantly sufficient for the purpose, there can be no need of any farther
+caution or new regulation; especially as the Jesuits, in the late
+declaration, which they had the honour to present your majesty, have
+assured us in the most express terms, that, if their general was to require
+any thing of them contrary to the laws of your kingdom or to the obedience
+and respect due to your majesty, they neither could nor would pay any
+regard to such commands; and that their vow of obedience, as it is
+explained in their rule, doth no way bind them to such a compliance. This
+so peremptory declaration of the Jesuits, and the wise dispositions of the
+edict in 1603, leave no room to apprehend any danger from the general's
+abusing his authority to the prejudice of your majesty's kingdom. We are,
+&c.
+
+  The cardinal DE LUYNES.
+  ------------ DE GESVRES.
+  ------------ DE ROHAN.
+  The archbp. of CAMBRAY.
+  -------------- REIMS.
+  -------------- NARBONNE.
+  {372}
+  -------------- EMBRUN.
+  -------------- AUSCH.
+  -------------- BOURDEAUX.
+  -------------- *.
+  -------------- ARLES.
+  -------------- TOULOUSE.
+  The bishop of LANGRES.
+  ------------ MANS.
+  ------------ VALENCE.
+  ------------ MACON.
+  ------------ BAYEUX.
+  ------------ AMIENS.
+  ------------ NOYON.
+  ------------ S. PAPOUL.
+  ------------ COMMINGES.
+  ------------ S. MALO.
+  ------------ DIE.
+  ------------ APOLLONIE.
+  ------------ S. PAUL-DE-LEON.
+  ------------ CHARTRES.
+  ------------ RHODEZ.
+  ------------ SARLAT.
+  ------------ ORLEANS.
+  ------------ MEAUX.
+  ------------ ARRAS.
+  ------------ BLOIS.
+  ------------ METZ.
+  ------------ ANGOULEME.
+  ------------ VERDUN.
+  ------------ SENLIS.
+  ------------ ANGERS.
+  ------------ DIGNE.
+  ------------ AUTUN.
+  ------------ VENCE.
+  ------------ EVREUX.
+  The coadjutor of STRASBOURG.
+  The bishop of LEICTOURE.
+  ------------ TROYES.
+  ------------ NANTES.
+
+  _General Agents for the Clergy._
+
+  M. l'abbe DE BROGLIE.
+  M. l'abbe DE JUIGNE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+{373}
+
+_A Copy of the Letter of the Archbishop of Paris, dated January 1, 1762._
+
+    MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,
+
+If, in company of the other prelates, I did not add my name to the answer
+which they had the honour to present your majesty, it was not that I
+differed in the least from their judgment as to the four articles, which
+your majesty was pleased to propose to their examination, concerning the
+usefulness, the doctrine, the conduct, and the government of the Jesuits. I
+am very sensible that, in point of virtue and learning, there is no bishop
+in the nation to whom I ought not to give the precedency; and, in this
+view, would willingly have subscribed after all my brother bishops: but
+there is a regard due to the dignity of the see, to which your majesty has
+graciously been pleased to call me, and I must not take a step, that may
+interfere with those prerogatives, which, after the example of your august
+predecessors, you think it your duty to maintain. No other consideration
+could have prevented my setting my hand to a testimony so much to the
+advantage of the Jesuits of your kingdom: and, whilst I have the honour to
+assure your majesty of my entire adherency to that solemn act, I once more
+beg leave to implore your justice and supreme authority in behalf of a
+religious body, {374} eminent for learning and piety, and well deserving
+your royal protection, for the great services, which, during the two last
+ages, they have rendered both to church and state.
+
+  (Signed)  CHRISTOPHER,
+  Archbishop of PARIS.
+
+THE END.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+  C. WOOD, Printer,
+  Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+NOTES
+
+[1] See Substance of a Speech of Sir John Coxe Hippisley, Bart. published
+by Murray, 1815.
+
+[2] Robertson's Charles V, vol. iii, p. 225.--To supply the malicious
+omission of the pamphlet writer, I will here insert the historian's report
+of the Jesuits in South America. "But it is in the new world that the
+Jesuits have exhibited the most wonderful display of their abilities, and
+have contributed most effectually to the benefit of the human species. The
+conquerors of that unfortunate quarter of the globe had nothing in view but
+to plunder, to enslave, and to exterminate its inhabitants. The Jesuits
+alone have made humanity the object of their settling there. About the
+beginning of the last century they obtained admission into the fertile
+province of Paraguay, which stretches across the southern continent of
+America, from the bottom of the mountains of Potosi to the confines of the
+Spanish and Portuguese settlements on the banks of the river de la Plata.
+They found the inhabitants in a state little different from that which
+takes place among men when they first begin to unite together: strangers to
+the arts; subsisting precariously by hunting or fishing; and hardly
+acquainted with the first principles of subordination and government. The
+Jesuits set themselves to instruct and to civilize these savages. They
+taught them to cultivate the ground, to rear tame animals, and to build
+houses. They brought them to live together in villages. They trained them
+to arts and manufactures. They made them taste the sweets of society, and
+accustomed them to the blessings of security and order. These people became
+the subjects of their benefactors, who have governed them with a tender
+attention, resembling that with which a father directs his children.
+Respected and beloved almost to adoration, a few Jesuits presided over some
+hundred thousand Indians. They maintained a perfect equality among all the
+members of the community. Each of them was obliged to labour, not for
+himself alone, but for the public. The produce of their fields, together
+with the fruits of their industry of every species, were deposited in
+common store houses, from which each individual received every thing
+necessary for the supply of his wants. By this institution, almost all the
+passions, which disturb the peace of society, and render the members of it
+unhappy, were extinguished. A few magistrates, chosen by the Indians
+themselves, watched over the public tranquillity, and secured obedience to
+the laws. The sanguinary punishments, frequent under other governments,
+were unknown: an admonition from a Jesuit; a slight mark of infamy; or, on
+some singular occasion, a few lashes with a whip, were sufficient to
+maintain good order among these innocent and happy people."--Charles V, p.
+219.
+
+[3] The author of the following Letters, who owed the publication of them
+to the liberality of the editor of the PILOT, complained of the refusal of
+the editor of the TIMES to admit into that paper a vindication of
+character, though he had opened his pages to the blaster of it. As
+newspapers in modern times have erected themselves into a kind of tribunal
+of the dernier resort, the editors should not forget the indispensable
+maxim of all courts of justice, and _concede alteri parti occasionem
+audiri_ should be a standing rule with them, or they must submit to pass
+for the star-chambers of jacobinism, or of some other party.
+
+[4] D'Alembert said to one of his intimates, with whom he had been to hear
+the celebrated sermon preached by P. Beauregard against the apostles of
+infidelity, "These men die hard."
+
+[5] The passage above cited, though not published with his name, is well
+known to have proceeded from the pen of M. de Lally Tolendal.
+
+[6] It is well known, that the Dutch, at this time, did every thing in
+their power to undermine the Portuguese in Japan, and that they fabricated
+tales of the Jesuits to alarm the government, which, they said, was to be
+subverted, the emperor to be dethroned, and the people made slaves to the
+pope. In consequence of these slanders, no Christian was suffered in the
+empire; when, to preserve their commerce, the Dutch abjured Christianity,
+and, in proof of their sincerity, consented to tread publicly upon the
+cross at certain times.
+
+[7] Encyclopedia Britannica.
+
+[8] Spirit of Laws, book v, chap. 14.
+
+[9] Robertson's Charles V, vol. iii, page 224.
+
+[10] See Sully's Memoirs.
+
+[11] This passage is also from the pen of M. Lally Tolendal.--When I was at
+Paris, in the autumn of 1814, he was engaged on the Life of Charles I, of
+England. After the return of Bonaparte, Louis XVIII appointed him one of
+his ministers.
+
+[12] See Letter IV.
+
+[13] This, if well executed, would be a very interesting work, and it is
+not impossible, that it may be attempted.
+
+[14] See Letter III.
+
+[15] Lord Clarendon, vol. i, page 73.
+
+[16] Hume's History of England, vol. vi, page 297, &c.
+
+[17] Hume's History of England, vol. vi, page 378.
+
+[18] On the subject of the popish plots, see Dr. Milner's Letters to a
+Prebendary.
+
+[19] As to the judges of those times, see what a picture is drawn of a
+chief justice by the most celebrated of our historians:--"To be a Jesuit,
+or even a catholic, was of itself a sufficient proof of guilt. The chief
+justice (sir William Scroggs), in particular, gave sanction to all the
+narrow prejudices and bigoted fury of the populace. Instead of being
+counsel for the prisoners, as his office required, he pleaded the cause
+against them, browbeat their witnesses, and on every occasion represented
+their guilt as certain and uncontroverted. He even went so far as publicly
+to affirm, that the papists had not the same principles which protestants
+have, and therefore were not entitled to that common _credence_, which the
+principles and practices of the latter call for. And, when the jury brought
+in their verdict against the prisoners, he said, 'You have done, gentlemen,
+like very good subjects, and very good Christians, that is to say, like
+very good protestants.'"--Hume's History of England, vol. viii, ch. 67, p.
+91. See also what the same author says in his third appendix: "Timid
+juries, and judges, who held their offices during pleasure, never failed to
+second all the views of the crown. And, as the practice was anciently
+common, of fining, imprisoning, or otherwise punishing the jurors, merely
+at the discretion of the court, for finding a verdict contrary to the
+direction of these dependent judges, it is obvious, that juries were then
+no manner of security to the liberty of the subject."--Vol. v, p. 458. And,
+if these be not enough, take conviction from the pen of one of the most
+penetrating geniuses of the age: "The proceedings on the popish plot," says
+Mr. Fox, in his History of James II, "must always be considered as an
+indelible disgrace upon the English nation, in which king, parliament,
+judges, juries, witnesses, prosecutors, have all their respective, though
+certainly not equal shares. Witnesses, of such a character as not to
+deserve credit in the most trifling cause, upon the most immaterial facts,
+gave evidence so incredible, or, to speak more properly, so impossible to
+be true, that it ought not to have been believed if it had come from the
+mouth of Cato: and, upon such evidence, from such witnesses, were innocent
+men condemned to death and executed. Prosecutors, whether attornies and
+solicitors-general, or managers of impeachment, acted with the fury which,
+in such circumstances, might be expected; juries partook, naturally enough,
+of the national ferment; and judges, whose duty it was to guard them
+against such impressions, were scandalously active in confirming them in
+their prejudices, and inflaming their passions. The king, who is supposed
+to have disbelieved the whole plot, never once exercised his glorious
+prerogative of mercy. It is said he dared not. His throne, perhaps his
+life, was at stake."--History of James II, by the right honourable Charles
+James Fox, page 33.
+
+[20] Fox's History of James II, page 40.
+
+[21] I was unwilling to interrupt the reader at the last quotation from Mr.
+Fox, but I beg leave here to say a few words relative to the insinuated
+calumny on the catholic priests of Ireland, to which I then alluded. As I
+have before observed, it is easy to see, that this attack, under cover of
+assailing the Jesuits, is aimed at catholics in general. The priests in
+Ireland are charged, in the pamphlet, with great venality and corruption of
+morals, and this, the writer says, may be affirmed without the fear of
+contradiction. To notice this slander is allowing myself to be led from my
+particular subject into the general one; I will not, therefore, dwell upon
+it, but, referring the reader to a volume of indisputable authority, though
+written by a catholic (Dr. Milner's Inquiry into certain vulgar Opinions,
+Letter xviii), for an interesting account of the Irish clergy and of the
+Irish poor, I will content myself with extracting a note, or rather
+reference, from page 182 of the book. "If, gentlemen, you are not under the
+influence of very gross prejudice, you will, in receiving representations
+of the necessitous state of Ireland, maturely weigh the allegations of men,
+who have stigmatized, and still stigmatize as the last of mankind, some of
+the most deserving and useful men in the community. There are among them
+preachers and teachers of the first excellence: there are men of profound
+erudition, men of nice classical taste, and men of the best critical
+acumen. They are not formed, it is true, to shine in the drawing-room or at
+the tea-table; nor are such qualifications very desirable in churchmen; for
+you well know, that the refined manners of fashionable life are often as
+incompatible with Christian morality, as the grosser vices of the vulgar
+herd. Their manners are, in general, decent; but their exertions are great,
+their zeal is indefatigable. See them in the most inclement seasons, at the
+most unseasonable hours, in the most uncultivated parts, amidst the poorest
+and most wretched of mankind! They are always ready at a call; nothing can
+deter them; the sense of duty surmounts every obstacle! And there is no
+reward for them in this world! The good effects of their zeal are visible
+to every impartial and discerning mind; notwithstanding the many great
+disadvantages under which it labours. For instance, you may often find a
+parish so extensive and populous as to require two or three clergymen
+properly to serve it, and yet the poverty of the parish is such as to be
+scarcely able to maintain one in a tolerably decent manner. I could point
+out many other disadvantages, but I forbear at present," &c.--"After all,
+the good effects are so conspicuous, that, I repeat it, the lower orders of
+Irishmen are better instructed in the doctrines of Christianity than the
+lower orders of Englishmen."
+
+I cannot speak of the catholic priests in Ireland from my own knowledge,
+but the information I have received, from friends well acquainted with the
+subject, fully corroborates this character of them. With such a character,
+already drawn before the public with genuine marks of candour, is it
+possible that any writer to the public should, in calumniating it, say,
+that there was no fear of his being contradicted? Was he not contradicted,
+if I may use the expression, by anticipation? But uncongenial records are
+useless things, like _stern lights_.
+
+[22] Rapin's History of England, vol. ii, page 344.
+
+[23] Hume says, that Campion was put to the rack, and, confessing his
+guilt, was publicly executed. The confession of guilt is not so clearly
+proved as the putting to the rack. In the life of Campion the confession is
+denied; and what Hume himself says immediately before is strong against the
+imputed guilt, that he and Parsons were sent to explain the bull of Pius,
+and to teach that the subjects of Elizabeth were not bound by it to rebel
+against her.--See vol. v, chap. xli, page 238.
+
+[24] Page 327, edition 1615.
+
+[25] Hume's History of England, vol. viii, chap. lxvii, page 110.
+
+[26] Hume's History of England, vol. v, chap. xxxviii, page 22, &c.
+
+[27] Hume.
+
+[28] Tom. ii, p. 375.
+
+[29] Bayle, article Loyola.
+
+[30] Dupleix's History of France.
+
+[31] An assembly of the clergy was held at Poissy, in 1561, where James
+Laynez, then general of the Jesuits, refuted the impieties of Beza, in the
+presence of the French court.
+
+[32] Filles Dieu.
+
+[33] See the Substance of a Speech of Sir John Coxe Hippisley, Bart., &c.
+
+[34] Sir John informs us (ibid. page 37), that "there is evidence fully on
+record" to show, that Frederic III, of Prussia, acted, with respect to the
+Jesuits, upon the "same principles which influenced the measures of the
+empress Catherine." According to the principles I have thought myself bound
+to ascribe to her, this concurrence is not unlikely; but, it is very
+unlikely, that he preserved them in his dominions through the sad ambition
+of showing a power of managing them. He had declared, that he retained
+them, in order to furnish _the good seed_ to catholic princes, who might
+one day wish to recover the plant.
+
+[35] The fifth article of the _pacta conventa_, confirmed by the empress's
+edict of September 5, 1772, runs in these words:--"Catholici utriusque
+ritus in his provinciis inhabitantes, quae augustissimae Russiarum
+imperatrici ex pacto convento cesserunt, ad civilem statum quod attinet,
+omnibus possessionibus bonisquae suis fruentur. In iis vero quae ad
+religionem spectant, _omnino_ conservabuntur _in statu quo_: videlicet, in
+eodem libero exercitio cultus et disciplinae suae, cum omnibus templis et
+bonis ecclesiasticis, _eodem modo_ quo possidebantur cum ii catholici sub
+dominium majestatis suae imperialis venerunt. Nec majestas sua imperialis
+nec ejus successores utentur unquam suprema potestate et auctoritate in
+detrimentum _status quo_ catholicae Romanae ecclesiae in commemoratis
+provinciis." This fifth article was afterwards formally accepted and agreed
+to by the empress, the king of Poland, and the pope, in the diet of Poland,
+September 18, 1773, five weeks after the suppression of the society at
+Rome. The nuncio Garampi had laboured in vain to obtain the exclusion of
+the Jesuits from the benefit of it.
+
+[36] Additional note, page 36.
+
+[37] Mr. Plowden, whose book, I am sorry to say, I have not read.
+
+[38] "Popes," says the very pontiff on whom sir John relies, "are pilots,
+steering almost always through boisterous seas, and, of course, must spread
+or shorten sail according to the weather."--Ganganelli's Letters, Letter
+cxii.
+
+[39] Ganganelli's Letters, Letter cxii.
+
+[40] Ibid.
+
+[41] Letter cxii.
+
+[42] St Luke, chap. xxiii. verse 24.
+
+[43] Letter cxii.
+
+[44] Appendix No. I.
+
+[45] Urban VII is placed at the head of the roll of the pontiffs hostile to
+the Jesuits. If sir John will take the trouble of looking into Sacchinus's
+History, part v, book x, page 505, he will there read, that, as soon as
+pope Urban VII was elected, he discharged from prison an innocent Jesuit,
+whom his violent predecessor, Sixtus V, had confined, publicly declaring
+him to be free from guilt, and suspicion of guilt. This, says the
+historian, was the first, and it was also the last, act of government of
+pope Urban VII, who presently was taken ill, and died on the twelfth day
+after his election, September 27, 1590.
+
+[46] After this, under the hand of Ganganelli, when pope, what can we think
+of those, who attempt to mislead the public mind by asserting, that the
+Jesuits were connected with the Inquisition?
+
+[47] This is directly in contradiction to sir John Hippisley's remark of
+the influence of the Jesuits being considered as so exceptionable, even by
+prelates of their own community.
+
+[48] Castera's History of Catherine II.
+
+[49] Clement XIII's Letter of the 9th July, 1763, to the archbishops and
+bishops of France.
+
+[50] Acts of the Apostles chap. xxv, verse 16.
+
+[51] See page 29.
+
+[52] Spirit of Laws, Book IV, chap. vi.
+
+[53] Dissertation on the Varieties of the Human Species.
+
+[54] Tracts on several interesting Subjects in Politics and Morals.
+
+[55] See the English edition of his work, called "A Relation of the
+Missions of Paraguay," pages 113, 181, _et passim_.
+
+[56] M. Lally Tolendal.
+
+[57] See the Life prefixed to his Sermons.
+
+[58] Bausset's Life of Fenelon, vol. i, page 21, &c.
+
+[59] Appendix, No. II.
+
+[60] See the Institute, vol. ii, p. 74.
+
+[61] Juan and Ulloa, Vol. II. chap. xv, p. 179 and 180.
+
+[62] Juan and Ulloa, Vol. II, chap. xv, p. 182 and 184.
+
+[63] See Memoirs of the Ministry of Carvalho, Marquis de Pombal.
+
+[64] Barruel's _Histoire du Clerge pendant la Revolution Francoise_, page
+152.
+
+[65] Infinite are the false reports, made by interested writers, of the
+missions of South America. The solid refutation of them may be found in
+many Spanish works, but more agreeably in the _Histoire du Paraguay_ of
+Charlevoix, the voyage of Juan and Ulloa, and the _Cristianesimo Felice_ of
+Muratori, already cited.
+
+[66] See vol. i, page 58.
+
+[67] In 1768, when the Jesuit missionaries from Spanish America arrived at
+Cadiz, a number of them, natives of northern countries, were shipped off to
+Ostend, to make their way to their respective homes. Their poor garments
+were almost worn to rags. A new hat was given to each, with a very small
+pittance in money, proportioned to the distance to which he was to travel.
+Those, who came from California, reported, that, before they were brought
+away from Mexico, the priests, who had been sent into California, to take
+their abandoned stations, returned in the ship, in which they had been sent
+out, refusing, one and all, to dwell in such a country.
+
+[68] De dign. et aug. Scient. I. 7.
+
+[69] It was a law of the society, with which the general could not
+dispense, that no rewards or alms were to be demanded or accepted, whereby
+the spiritual and literary duties of the institute might seem to be
+recompensed. Even the usual honorary retributions, attached to spiritual
+functions, and regulated by the canons, were excluded. Hence, when
+clergymen of other descriptions had preached a course of sermons in royal
+chapels, they were usually, and very justly, complimented with some
+considerable benefice, frequently a mitre: when Jesuits had performed the
+same duty with success, they were thanked in the king's name, and informed,
+that his majesty would be glad to hear them another year. Perhaps this law
+of the Jesuits, and their renunciation of church dignities by vow, were
+among the motives, which engaged princes to employ them so much in
+spiritual concerns.
+
+[70] Cardinal de Maury's "Eloge de M. l'Abbe Radonvilliers, prononce le 7
+Mai, 1807."
+
+[71] See cardinal de Maury's "Essai sur l'Eloquence, Panegyriques, Eloges,
+&c." vol. ii, printed at Paris, 1810.
+
+[72] They are found, principally, in the fourth part of their
+"Constitutions," in the rules of provincials, rectors, prefects of schools,
+masters, and scholastics, and in their _Ratio Studiorum_.
+
+[73] See the chapter of part x, entitled "De modo quo conservari et augeri
+totum corpus Societatis in suo bono statu possit," vol. i, p. 445, of the
+Prague folio edition.
+
+[74] Institute, vol. ii, p. 408, Prague folio edition.
+
+[75] Institute, vol. ii, p. 408, Prague folio edition.
+
+[76] Ibid. vol. i, p. 407.
+
+[77] Ibid. vol. i, p. 408.
+
+[78] Institute, vol. i, p. 373.
+
+[79] Ibid, vol. i, p. 408.
+
+[80] "Filiis suis, ut convenit, compati noverit."--Institutum Const., Pars
+IX, vol. ii, c. i, p. 4.
+
+"Conferet secum viros, qui consilio polleant, habere, quorum opera in iis
+quae statuenda sunt . . . uti possit."--Ibid., vol. i, p. 425.
+
+[81] "Vir sit (generalis) . . . in omni virtutum genere exemplum . . . ac
+_praecipue_ in eo _splendor charitatis_ . . . sit conspicuus."--Institutum
+Const., vol. i, p. 135.
+
+"Advertendum quod primo in _charitate ac dulcedine_, qui peccant, sunt
+admonendi."--Ibid. vol. i, p. 375.
+
+[82] "Conferet etiam, circumspecte et ordinate precipaere . . . ita ut
+subditi se potius ad _dilectionem_ majorem quam ad timorem suorum
+superiorem possint componere."--Ibid., vol. i, p. 426.
+
+"Ut in spiritu _amoris_ et non cum perturbatione timoris procedatur,
+curandum est."--Ibid., vol. i, p. 407.
+
+[83] "Juret unusquisque, priusquam det (_suffragium_) quod eum nominat,
+quem sentit in Domino magis idoneum."--Ibid., vol. i, p. 431.
+
+[84] "Si accidiret ut valde negligens vel remissus esset, &c. . . . tunc
+enim coadjutor vel vicarius qui generalis officio fungatur, est
+eligendus."--Institutum Const., vol. i, p. 439.
+
+[85] "Habet ergo societas cum praeposito generali (et idem cum inferioribus
+fieri possit) aliquem qui accedens ad Deum in oratione, postquam divinam
+bonitatem consulerit et aequum esse id judicaverit, cum modestia debita ac
+humilitate, quid sentiat in ipso praeposito requiri ad majus obsequium et
+gloriam Dei, admonere teneatur."--Ibid., Pars IX, c. iv, n. 4, p. 439.
+
+[86] See Part IX, chap. iv, of the Constitutions, entitled "De auctoritate
+vel providentia quam Societas habere debet erga praepositum Generalem," vol.
+i, p. 439.
+
+[87] Ibid.
+
+[88] "Erit etiam summi momenti, ut perpetuo felix societatis status
+conservetur, diligentissime ambitionem, malorum omnium in quavis republica
+vel congregatione matrem submovere."--Institutum Const., vol. i, p. 446.
+
+"Qui autem de ambitione hujusmodi convictus esset, activo et passivo
+suffragio privetur, ut inhabilis ad eligendum alium (generalem), et ut ipse
+eligatur."--Ibid., vol. i, p. 430.
+
+[89] Institutum Const., vol. i, p. 490.
+
+[90] Institutum Const., vol. i, p. 422.
+
+[91] When Dr. Priestley went to Paris, to enjoy personally the happy
+improvement of human affairs, at the conclusion of the eighteenth century,
+the glorious star of reason was culminating. He was known to be a
+materialist, consequently very naturally taken for an atheist, or at least
+a naturalist, if I may use the expression, and the arms of the fraternity
+were open to receive a man so highly distinguished for his chemical
+discoveries. They eagerly entered into discourse with one, who had denied
+man a soul, and, after pouring forth their own sublime theories of eternal
+sleep and energies of nature, they gave him a pause to utter _his_
+sublimities; and presently the room echoed with laughter and information
+that the doctor _believes: Le docteur croit, le docteur Priestley croit_.
+Some, who had not heard the conversation, ran to inquire what he believed.
+_Comment! croit-il l'immortalite de l'ame? Point de tout; il convient que
+l'homme n'a point d'ame. Bien! que croit-il donc? Il croit, l'immortalite
+du corp. Que diable! quelle bizarerie! Mais, chez docteur, expliquez nous
+cela_. The doctor discoursed on matter, and necessity, and of Jesus Christ
+as a mere man. Finding that he believed _something_ their astonishment was
+great; and, for some time, _le docteur croit_ was a bye-word.
+
+[92] Genie du Christianisme, tom. viii.
+
+[93] By his edicts on this subject, the youth of France were to be brought
+up at his schools throughout the empire; these schools, in every town and
+village, were all dignified with the appellation of university, the masters
+of which were appointed by the principal of the school at Paris, and to be
+under his control. The mathematics and a military spirit were ordered to be
+the chief things attended to: all boys, of whatever age, wore uniforms and
+immense cornered hats.
+
+[94] A writer in the Times, cited in the Quarterly Review of Oct. 1811, p.
+302.
+
+[95] The Jansenistical apostate monk, Le Courayer, alleges a powerful
+motive to enforce this doctrine: it is this; "By destroying the credit and
+reputation of the Jesuits, Rome must be subverted: and when this is once
+effected, Religion will reform itself."--_Hist. du Conc. de Trente, ed.
+d'Amsterdam_, 1751, p. 63.
+
+[96] That the ministers Pombal, Choiseul, Aranda, Tanucci, &c. should have
+adopted this summary mode of execution at Lisbon, Paris, Madrid, Naples,
+&c. creates now little surprise, devoted as they were to the views of the
+philosophers.
+
+[97] It will be readily allowed, that the form of limited monarchy is best
+calculated to insure the happiness of subjects. Besides this general
+advantage, many other features of the Jesuits' institute strongly conspired
+to produce union of minds and hearts among the members. One main cause of
+it, however, was accidental, and extrinsic to their government and
+statutes. This was the unceasing pressure of unmerited outward hostility,
+which, of course, closed them into a more compact phalanx. In the last
+persecution, a thousand stratagems were devised to create disunion among
+them, and to engage them to solicit their own dissolution. Their enemies
+were everywhere disappointed and enraged. They were reduced to assassinate
+the body, which they could not decompose. In every country, they employed
+merciless soldiers, and still more unfeeling lawyers, to tear off the
+Jesuits' cassocks; and everywhere they found the country watered with the
+Jesuits' tears. Jesuits were everywhere fond of their profession. Can this
+be a crime?
+
+[98] After some search I have discovered, that Jerom Zarowicz, or Zarowich,
+was the name of the discharged Polish Jesuit, who forged and published the
+_Monita Secreta_ in 1616. Subsequent editions, as might be expected, were
+swelled with fresh matter. Henry a Sancto Ignatio, a Flemish Carmelite
+friar, and an avowed partisan of the Jansenists Arnaud and Quesnel,
+trumpeted forth the _Monita_ in his _Tuba Magna_, a violent invective
+against the Jesuits, which he printed at Strasburg in 1713, and again in
+1717, just at the period when Quesnel was condemned by the famous bull
+_Unigenitus_.
+
+While the minister Pombal was persecuting the Jesuits in Portugal, Almada,
+his agent at Rome, filled that capital and all Italy with outrageous libels
+against the suffering victims, composed and distributed chiefly by a knot
+of friars of different orders, who were in his pay, and printed at the
+press of Nicolas Pagliarini. Some of the former were banished, and the
+latter was condemned to the galleys. His punishment was remitted by the
+meek pontiff Clement XIII, and the culprit escaped to Lisbon, where he was
+employed, honoured, and rewarded by Pombal. I have before me two of these
+libels, printed in 1760, of which, one is an Italian translation of the
+_Monita Secreta_, preceded by a preface of 137 pages, and followed by a
+long appendix. The performance, like that of Laicus, is a wild, incoherent
+assemblage of impostures and insults, all written, as the author
+acknowledges, _con uno stile basso e andante_, because he professes to
+write for the lower classes of readers, _per illuminare il minuto populo_.
+In fact, his manner and language are almost as low and groveling as those
+of that eminent adept in the _stile basso e andante_, Laicus of the Times.
+
+[99] Not having elsewhere met with this monstrous calumny, I incautiously
+ascribed the invention of it to Laicus. But in one of the Italian libels,
+mentioned in the last note, the writer, having informed the _minuto populo_
+of Italy, that the Jesuits are professed poisoners, gives the proof in
+these words: "Perhaps pope Innocent XIII was snatched from us by Jesuitical
+barbarity. There would be no doubt of it, if only the surgeon of that pope,
+who is still alive (in 1760), would be pleased to declare, that the Jesuits
+had infused poison through the sore in the old pontiff's leg. But he is
+silent, through dread of the Jesuits' vengeance." This is called
+_illuminating the minuto populo_. Laicus catches the ray, and reflects it,
+with lustre improved, upon our _minuto populo_, when he assures them, that
+Innocent XIII _was UNIVERSALLY UNDERSTOOD to have been murdered by the
+Jesuits_. Such is the progress of genius.
+
+[100] See Letter II.
+
+[101] Ibid.
+
+[102] See Letter II.
+
+[103] See Letter II.
+
+[104] Ibid.
+
+[105] See Letter II.
+
+[106] Ibid.
+
+[107] See Letter II.
+
+[108] See Letter III.
+
+[109] Voltaire, in his History of Louis XIV, had the assurance to write,
+that our king James II was a Jesuit. Abbe Millot, a pitiful imitator of
+Voltaire, who had been dismissed from the society of the Jesuits, obtained
+a seat in the French academy, and published _Elemens de l'Histoire de
+France_. In this meagre work, not to be outdone by his master, he has the
+impudence to advance, that St. Louis IX, king of France, was a Dominican
+friar. All this passes for history with certain readers, who are not quite
+among the _minuto populo_.
+
+[110] See Letter III.
+
+[111] Urban VIII was elected pope in 1625. I have before me an authentic
+list of all the superiors of the Jesuits in England from 1623 downwards to
+1773, in which no name like Stillington appears.
+
+[112] See Letter III.
+
+[113] Pope, indeed, has contradicted the calumny in his energetic verse,
+
+  _Where London's column, pointing at the skies,_
+  _Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies._
+
+In spite of which, the column is still allowed to disgrace the first city
+in the world, though it totters, and daily nods destruction around
+it.--_Ed._
+
+[114] It must be acknowledged, that this calumny has been too hastily
+placed to the credit of Laicus. He has not the honour of the invention.
+Calumny it certainly is. Whoever knows the angry temper of the parliament
+of Paris, in 1757, when their opposition to the king, and their fury
+against the archbishop De Beaumont and the Jesuits, were wound up to an
+uncommon height, must allow, that they would have been delighted with the
+detection of the slightest symptom, the most distant presumption of guilt,
+in any Jesuit. The wretched culprit Damiens was frequently interrogated
+with this view. He constantly denied that he had any accomplice, but owned,
+that he had conceived the idea of his crime, from frequently hearing the
+table talk of members of the parliament, on whom he waited; his design
+being, as he pretended, only to make the king more attentive to the voice
+and complaints of the people. Notwithstanding the certainty of this, one of
+the above mentioned Italian libels, written _per il minuto populo_, informs
+them roundly, that the Jesuits were accomplices of Damiens, and that two
+Jesuits were _privately_ hanged for it in the _Bastille_. But why was not
+Laicus equally trusted with the secrets of that state prison? Possibly he
+has learned this lesson from his oracle Coudrette. He cannot however glory
+in the invention.
+
+[115] It may be suspected, that Coudrette is really the writer, to whom,
+suppressing his name, Robertson so often refers his readers, in his account
+of Jesuits, in the Life of Charles V. Perhaps he was ashamed to name such
+an author. But he had already forfeited his title to historical
+impartiality, by acknowledging, that his unfavourable account of the
+Jesuits is derived from the _Comptes Rendus_ and _Requisitoires_ of La
+Chalotais, attorney general of the parliament of Bretagne, who, not less
+than Coudrette, was truly _un ennemi acharne des Jesuites_.
+
+[116] "They," said Dr. Johnson, "who would cry out _Popery_ in the present
+day, would have cried _Fire_ in the time of the deluge."
+
+[117] See Letter V.
+
+[118] See Letter V.
+
+[119] See Letter V.
+
+[120] The preservation of the society of Jesus in the Russian empire, in
+spite of innumerable solicitations, schemes, and intrigues employed to
+procure its suppression, would form a curious morsel of _particular_
+history, highly honourable to the court of Petersburg and creditable to the
+Jesuits.
+
+[121] The French League.
+
+[122] Si acciderit aliquod ex peccatis (avertas id Deus), quae sufficiunt ad
+praepositum officio privandum, simul atque res per sufficientia testimonia,
+vel ipsius affirmationem constaret, juramento adstringantur assistentes ad
+id societati denuntiandum.--Cap. V. art. iv, p. 440.
+
+[123] Et si res devulgata et communiter manifesta esset, non expectata
+quatuor assistentium confirmatione, provinciales alii alios vocando
+convenire debent, et ipso primo die quo in locum hujusmodi congregationis
+ingredientur, ubi aderunt quatuor qui convocarunt, cum aliis congregatis,
+rem is aggrediatur cui omnia notoria sunt, et accusatio dilucide
+explicetur. Et postquam auditus fuerit praepositus, foras egredi debebit, et
+antiquissimus ex provincialibus simul cum secretario aut alio assistente,
+de lata re scrutinium faciat, et primo quidem an constet de peccato quod
+objicitur, deinde an ejusmodi sit ut propter id officio privari debeat; et
+idem suffragia promulget, quae ut sufficiant duas tertias partes excedent;
+et tunc statim de alio eligendo agatur, et si fieri potest, non inde prius
+egrediatur quam societas praepositum generalem habeat.--Ibid. p. 440.
+
+[124] Prima ad res externas pertinet vestitus, victus et expensarum
+quarumlibet, quae omnia vel augere, vel imminuere poterit societas prout
+praepositum ipsum ac se decere et Deo gratius fore judicabit et tunc
+societatis ordinationi acquiescere oportebit.--Cap. IV, art. ix, p. 439,
+tom. i.
+
+[125] Numero autem hujusmodi assistentium quidem quatuor......... et quidem
+illi ipsi esse poterunt de quibus supradictum......... quamvis autem res
+graviores ab iis tractandae sint, statuendi tamen facultas, postquam eos
+audierit, penes praepositum generalem erit.--Cap. VI, art. i, p. 444, tom.
+ii.
+
+[126] Est item penes praepositum generalem omnis facultas agenda quosvis
+contractus emptionum aut venditionum quorumlibet bonorum temporalium
+mobilium tam domorum quam collegiorum societatis, et imponendi aut
+redimendi quoslibet census super bonis stabilibus ipsorum collegiorum, in
+eorumdem utilitatem et bonum, cum facultate sese liberandi, restituta
+pecunia quae data fuerit. Alienare autem aut omnino dissolvere collegia vel
+domos jam creatas societatis sine generali ejus congregatione praepositus
+generalis non poterit.--Cap. III. col. ii, p. 336, tom. i.
+
+[127] Cum autem quidquam privatae utilitatis ex redditibus quaerere vel in
+suum usum convertere non possit, est valde probabile quod majori cum
+puritate ac Spiritu constantius ac diuturnius procedat in iis quae ad bonum
+regimen collegiorum ad majus Dei ac Domini nostri obsequium provideri
+convenit.--Cap. I, tit. i, p. 392.
+
+[128] Transferre vel differre domos vel collegia jam creata, aut in usum
+societatis professae redditus eorum convertere praepositus generalis, ut in 4
+part. dictum est, non poterit.--Cap. IV, art. xlviii, p. 438.
+
+[129] De his vero quae societati ita relinquuntur ut ipsa pro suo arbitratu
+et regat et disponat (sive illa bona stabilia sint; ut domus aliqua vel
+proedium non alicui certo collegio ab eo qui disponit, relinquit
+determinare applicatum vel annexum, sive mobilia cujusmodi sunt pecunia,
+triticum et quoevis alia mobilia) idem generalis disponere poterit, aut
+vendendo, aut retinendo, aut huic vel illi loco id quod videbitur
+applicando, prout ad majorem Dei gloriam senserit expedire.--Cap. III, art.
+vi, p. 437. col. ii, tit. 2.
+
+[130] Declaratum est ut haec bona tantum in eadem provincia et non alibi
+generalis debeat distribuere, pag. 493, item, pag. 702, ibid. eadem
+provincia in qua, 1 cap. 30, partis constitutionum distribuenda esse
+dicuntur bona nostrorum quae illi societati dare volunt, intelligenda est,
+in qua sunt ipsa bona, non autem in qua quis societatem ingreditur, aut
+versatur. Sumitur autem provinciae nomen more societatis, prout scilicet uni
+praeposito provinciali subest.
+
+[131] Quod si in eadem provincia plura sint dominia diversis principibus
+subjecta, adjecit congregatio diligenter servandam esse eamdem
+constitutionem ut scilicet in transferendis hujusmodi fratrum nostrorum
+bonis ex uno Dominio in aliud ejusdem provinciae societatis, ratio haberetur
+regum, principum et aliorum potestatum, ne in eis causa ulta offensionis
+detur, sed ad majorem aedificationem omnium et spiritualem animarum
+profectum et gloriam Dei omnia cedant.--Tom. i. p. 511.
+
+[132] Sexta locum habet in quibusdam casibus (quos speramus per Dei
+bonitatem, aspirante ipsius gratia, nunquam eventuros) cujusmodi essent
+peccata mortalia in externum actum prodeuntia, ac nominatim, copula
+carnalis: vulnerare quemdam: ex redditibus collegiorum aliquid ad proprios
+sumptus assumere: vel pravam doctrinam habere. Si quid ergo horum
+acciderit, potest ac debet societas (si de re sufficientissime constaret)
+eum officio privare, ac si opus est, a societate removere. In omnibus prae
+occulis habendo quod ad majorem Dei gloriam et universale bonum societatis
+fore judicabitur.--Cap. XII, art. vii, p. 440, tom. i.
+
+[133] Page 215, tome iv, des Memoires du Clerge.
+
+[134] Page 451 du meme volume.
+
+[135] Maximes et Reflections sur la Comedie, ed. de 1674, p. 138, 139.
+
+[136] Henry IV finished the letter, which he deigned to the general
+assembly, with these words: "Vos hortamur ad retinendam instituti vestri
+integritatem et splendorem."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Corrections made to printed original.
+
+Page 104. "It opens with a long narration": 'uarration' in original.
+
+Page 107. "the addition of pressing solicitations": 'additition' in
+original.
+
+Page 320. "sounded in the present times": 'preset' in original.
+
+Page 338. "et praedecessorum nostrorum": 'praedecessorm' in original.
+
+Page 361. "profess obedience to all their superiors' commands": 'to to'
+(over line break) in original.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Conspiracy, by R. C.  Dallas
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