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THE 
 
 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 per- 
 fectarum, 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 FQR JAMES RIDGWAY^ PICCADILLY. 
 
 1815. 
 
C. WOOD, Printer, 
 Poppin's Court, Fleet Street. 
 
TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 GEORGE CANNING, M. ?• 
 
 HIS majesty's ambassador extraordinary to 
 
 THE COURT OF PORTUGAL, 8fC, 8fC. 
 
 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 
 
 14738^ 
 
VI DEDICATION, 
 
 of the ruin of the society of Jesuits, with 
 its circumstances and effects, are worthy 
 of your attention/' I have hestowed 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 1 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 opprobriumj; 
 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 
 
DEDICATION. VU 
 
 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 Portu- 
 gal, 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 
 
via DEDICATION. 
 
 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, 1S15. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HAVING formerly occupied my thoughts 
 on the subject of promoting the knowledge 
 and practice of religion among the Ne- 
 groes 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, particu- 
 larly 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 aflfection, 
 for that enlightened and persevering body 
 in the Christian cause, who had spread 
 over the immense regions of that conti- 
 
 b 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 iient more virtue and real temporal hap- 
 piness 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 im- 
 pression 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 in- 
 teresting 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 predilec- 
 tion. On my return from the continent 
 a short time since, I met with a pamphlet 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 lately published, entitled ^^ A Brief Ac- 
 count 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 ques- 
 tion. 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 satifaction from them, and thought 
 them worthy of being preserved. They 
 did not, however, appear to me sufficiently 
 full upon the subject, and I therefore re- 
 solved 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. 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 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 unfola 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 govern- 
 ments, particularly by the marquis de 
 Pombal, the minister of the king of Portu- 
 gal. It is not my intention to undertake 
 so laborious a task, but I trusty that the 
 following exposition will unfold sufficient 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 of tlie injustice, which has heen so un- 
 feehngly 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 re- 
 vival 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 so- 
 ciety, will consist more particularly in the 
 active and zealous cultivation of Christian 
 virtues, and a spirit of loyai^ty among 
 the catholics of all countries, whether pro- 
 testant or catholic ; and, unless we mean 
 to say, with some of the furious reformers, 
 that the religion of the catholics is to be 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 extirpated altogether, it is absurd to say, 
 that thev shall not have their best and 
 most active instructors. 
 
 When this volume had nearly gone 
 through the press, in the course of read- 
 ing I met with the following curious pas- 
 sage, extracted from a Letter to a Noble 
 Lord by a Country Gentleman, entitled 
 '' Considerations on the Penal Laws," &c. 
 published by the Dodsleys, of PalJ-Mall, 
 so long ago as 1764, about two years after 
 the suppression of the Jesuits in France, 
 and eleven previous to their total suppres- 
 sion by Clement XIV; I insert it, as I think 
 it will not be miacceptable 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 owa 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 country. In France grave magistrates 
 nlready celebrate and the first courts 
 OF judicature echo with the praises of 
 Julian arid 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 em- 
 ployed not against popery alone, but to 
 render contemptible the whole Jewish and 
 Christian revelation." The grave ma- 
 gistrates ^ auAJirst 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*:" we see by 
 what steps, and we have felt with what 
 success. 
 
 In the following pages, I have shown, 
 
 * See Substance of a Speech of Sir John Coxe Hip- 
 pisley, Bart, published by Murray, 1S15. ^ 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 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 rebeUion) had conspired 
 to effect the destruction of the Jesuits; and, 
 I suspect, that " the mass of information," 
 which suppUes 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 never- 
 theless open to all the objections that arise 
 from the principles and history of the in- 
 trigues of the ordinances alluded to. There 
 ^s however some decency in recurring to 
 
PREFACE. XVll 
 
 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 
 Chronologiquey published by the court 
 OF Portugal, it is evident they w^ere the 
 principal actors, who, having overturned 
 the monarchy, afterwards suppressed the 
 democracy, and then, substituting an ap- 
 parent aristocracy, reigned for some time 
 over Portugal, concealed under that 
 
 c 
 
XVm PREFACE. 
 
 cloak." This is a fine specimen of the 
 warfare carried on against the society. 
 The ambassador's ignorance of the in- 
 trigues of the Jesuits is not brought for- 
 ward as a proof of their innocence, but as 
 a reason why we should believe Pombah 
 As to the revolutionizing Portugal, and 
 placing don Pedro on the throne, the am- 
 bassador could have been no stranger to 
 the real causes of don Pedro's being pro- 
 claimed regent during the life of his bro- 
 ther Alonzo, from the incapacity of the 
 latter, and the intrigues, first of his mo- 
 ther, and afterwards of his wife, the prin- 
 cess 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 
 carrv also along with him the asseveration 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 of tlie author, that he is entirely uncon- 
 nected 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 so- 
 ciety, I am unacquainted with a single in- 
 dividual 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. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 INTRODUCTION i 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Remarks on the Objects of the Author of 
 '' A brief Account of the Jesuits ;' and 
 on his mode of conducting his Argu- 
 ment ^ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Inquiry into the Character of the Au- 
 thorities 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 . 1^3 
 
XXll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 Character of Pombal. Summary Obser- 
 vations, and a brief notice of the ten- 
 dency and danger of Education inde- 
 pendent of Religion 229 
 
 THE LETTERS OF CLERICUS . . 259 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The Bull of Clement XIII ..... 3^t 
 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, tlte 
 same historian referred to in page 72, The speech is also to be found 
 in the Memoirs of the Minister Viileroi, 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. 
 
THE 
 
 NEW CONSPIRACY 
 
 AGAINST THE JESUITS, 
 
 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 deno- 
 mination whatever. It is with this conviction 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 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 inlmman, 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 pur- 
 pose to clear away in such a manner as to en- 
 able 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 mod* 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 of conducting his argument : 2dlyj 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 fun- 
 damental character of it, with the prominent fea- 
 tures 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. 
 
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 exa- 
 mine 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 parlia- 
 ment. The plan he pursues to eifect these ob- 
 jects 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* VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 has executed it in such a manner as to make it 
 evident, that he was not in search of tinith, 
 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 cir* 
 cumstance 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 
 
ON THE JESUITS. f 
 
 " 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 tliem, 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. lu 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, wlio was in search of truth, have 
 selected only that which was calculated to pro- 
 duce 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 VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 his attack. Who, after reading the part se- 
 lected, would suspect, if he did not know it be- 
 fore, 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 con- 
 stitution and spirit of the order with the free- 
 dom 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, ambi- 
 tious^ interested policy, might influence those, 
 who governed the society, and might even cor- 
 rupt 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 
 
ON THE JESUITS. 9 
 
 vice, and excite them to what is becoming and 
 laudable^." 
 
 * 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 elFectually 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 oh 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 
 
 C 
 
10 VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 The author^ in a note^ acknowledges, that 
 his Summary does not wholly lay claim to 
 
 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 thou- 
 sand 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 main- 
 tain good order among these innocent and happy people." 
 — Charles V, p. 219, 
 
ON THE JESUITS, 11 
 
 originality. It is, in fact, all copied : why then 
 did he not cite his authority ? and, when he 
 was copying, why did lie 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 pre- 
 possessed his reader Avith 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 him- 
 self, 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 in- 
 trigues dangerous to society \ and that he 
 
12 VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 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 *. 
 
 * The author of the following Letters, who owed th& 
 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 
 altcri parti occasionem audiri should be a standing mje 
 
ON THE JESUITS. 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 ge- 
 nuine 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 Pro- 
 vincial 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 eifusions 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 ridi-^ 
 cule, nor friend to religion (Voltaire), to be 
 completely misapplied. A lover of truth, when 
 
 with them, or they must submit to pass for the star-chambers 
 ©f jacobinism, or of some other party. 
 
14 VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 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 falsQ 
 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 ansivei^ed 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 Guch enemies as the Jansenists, will it 
 be thought extraordinary, that a thousand fa- 
 brications 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 philosoj)hers and jacobins, is it wonder- 
 ful that there should be modern forgeries ? 
 
ON THE JESUITS. 15 
 
 One such suffrage, as that which I have quoted 
 from Robertson, is of itself sufficient to out- 
 weigh folios of charges originating in the 
 jealous passions of a rival sect, in the effusions 
 of a mad mistaken philosophy, or in magis^ 
 terial persecution, which, to use the vigorous 
 language of a living genius, in " the destruc- 
 tion of the Jesuits, that memorable instance of 
 puerile o})pression, of jealousy, ambition, in- 
 justice^ 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 thfe 
 withdrawing of all religious and prudent con- 
 gregations, in which the savage populace of the 
 Faubourg St. Antoine were tamed by the 
 disciples of an Ignatius and a Xavier. Such 
 men as Por^e and La Rue, Vaniere and Jou- 
 venci, in the academic chairs ; Bourdaloue. 
 Cheminais, Neuville, L'Enfrvnt, in the pulpit: 
 
l6 VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 Segaud, Duplessis, and Beauregard *) 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*}-/' 
 
 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 oil 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 inten- 
 tion of the order of Jesuits to labour with 
 
 * D'Alembert said to one of his intimates, with whom he 
 had been to hear the celebrated sermon preached by P. Beau- 
 regard against the apostles of infidelity, *' These men die 
 hard/' 
 
 t The passage above cited, though not published with 
 his name, is well known to have proceeded from the pen of 
 M. de Lally TolendaL 
 
ON THE JESUITS. 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 falsify- 
 ing 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 unformly been, to do evil that 
 good might corned Can any thing ba more 
 reprehensible ? 
 
18 VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 I will adduce one instance more of the dis- 
 ingenuousness of this writer. Speaking, ex- 
 clusively, of the Jesuits^ he charges them with 
 '^ rendering Christianity utterly odious in the 
 vast empire of Japan =^5" 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 exe- 
 
 * It is v/ell known, that the Dutch, at this time, did 
 every thing in their power to imdermine 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 Chris- 
 tian was suffered in the empire; when, to preserve their 
 commerce, the Butch abjured Christianity, and, in proof 
 of their sincerity, consented to tread publicly upon the 
 cross at certain times. 
 
ON THE JESUITS. I9 
 
 cution of twenty-six persons, ^^ in the number 
 whereof were two foreigji Jesuits^ and several 
 other fathers of the Franciscan order." And a 
 little after^ the same writer says, '* some Fran- 
 ciscan 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 churchy contrary to the 
 imperial commands, and contrary to the advice 
 and earnest solicitations of the Jesuits* ^ The 
 authority of the Encyclopedia Britannica will 
 not be objected to by the enemies of the ca- 
 tholics ; nor, I presume, will that of Mon- 
 tesquieu, 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 
 
 * Encyclopedia Britannics^. 
 
20 VIOLENT ATTACK 
 
 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 pu- 
 nishment*." As to the enormities in China, 
 we shall find, upon inquiry, that the Jesuits 
 were not more responsible for those. The fol- 
 lowing is an extract from a geographical ac- 
 count of China : " P. Michael Rogu, a Nea- 
 politan 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 
 
 * Spirit of Laws, book v, chap. H. 
 
ON THE JESUITS. 21 
 
 to every body, and by that means acquired the 
 public esteem. He had many followers. At 
 length, in iGso, the Dominicans and Francis- 
 cans 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 fun- 
 damental, and not accidental." In omitting, 
 therefore, to cite documents, which show that 
 they are not fundamental, does he not admit, 
 
*22 VIOLENT ATTACK ON THE JESUITS. 
 
 does he not plainly say, / 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. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 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 respect 
 ing the autliorities, 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 authori- 
 
24 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 ties would have been sought in very different 
 sources, and his whole account of the order oi 
 Jesus would have been very different to what it 
 is. Far from impeaching that elegant writer 
 with wilful misrepresentations, or want of cau- 
 tion 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=^, to inform his readers, 
 that he believes his two principal authorities, 
 Monclar and Chalotais, to be respectable ma- 
 gistrates and elegant writers. But I maintain, 
 that, if he had seen them in the point of view in 
 w^hich they have since appeared, as leaders on of 
 the Jacobinical philosophy, and of the French 
 revolution, it is not likely that he would hav& 
 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, Chalo- 
 tais, D'Alembert, Histoire des Jesuites, the 
 French Encyclopedic, Charlevoix, Juan, and 
 
 * Robertson's Charles V, vol. iii, pap^f ^"^^ 
 
ANI> CHARGES REFUTED. 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 Encyclopedia 
 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 ne- 
 cessary 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 Couitois, 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 perpe- 
 tually 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 scho- 
 lars, who flocked to the Jesuit schools^ and at 
 
 E 
 
26 AUTHORITIES COMPAREt) 
 
 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 be- 
 yond measure. The parliaments and the doc- 
 tors 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 ser- 
 mons'; they pronounced Henry III and Hen- 
 ry IV excommunicated tyrants ; they canonized 
 Jacques Clement ; they rewarded his mother 
 and family ; they openly preached regicide. 
 Their rage equalled that of the modern jaco- 
 bins. 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 lY, the 
 parliaments and university, constrained to ab- 
 jure it, were nevertheless determined upon 
 effecting the banishment of the Jesuits before- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. S? 
 
 the king could enter on his government. 
 The doctors renewed their suits^ and employed 
 as advocates Arnaud, Pasquier^ and DoUe, who 
 went into the courts with certainty of success. 
 Completely successful they would have heen, 
 but for the w^isdom of the minister, the duke 
 de Sully, who, though a leader of the Hugo- 
 FiOts, 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 in- 
 terposing the authority of the absent king, 
 ^' which," said he, '^ is not to be compromised 
 four line pique de pretres et de theologiens^r 
 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 i 
 no writer accuses them of it, the advocateii 
 
 ■^ Soe Sully's Memoirs. 
 
Q8 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 just mentioned excepted ; and their invective»^ 
 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 j)rociireurs 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 pre- 
 sented by Chalotais was written by D'Alembert 
 himself; that of Riquet, procureur general of 
 the parliament of Thonlouse, 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 chan- 
 cellor of France, if he would adopt it, and en- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 29 
 
 gage his parliament in the cause. The venerable 
 president of that parliament, D'Eguilles, refus- 
 ing 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 cha- 
 racter 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 aifairs, called him 
 to his councils ? * " The procureur general of 
 Bretagne, La Chalotais, eager to possess popu- 
 larity, in order that he might arrive at power, 
 
 * This passage is also from the pen of M. Lally To- 
 lendal. — When I was at Paris, in the autumn of 1 8 1 4, he 
 was engaged on the Life of Charles I, of England. After 
 the return of Bonaparte, Louis XVIII appointed him 
 one of his ministers. 
 
30 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 parlia- 
 ment, 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 de- 
 nunciation, 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 ultin 
 ma 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 im- 
 mediately thrown into universal confusion. 
 In the year 1764, the duke D'Aiguillon, com-. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 31 
 
 mandant of Bretagne, a peer of France, grand 
 nephew of cardinal Richelien, nephew of the 
 then minister, lastly a friend of the Jesuits, 
 and in great favour with the dauphin, was de- 
 nounced in the parliament of Bretagne, by tlie 
 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 mis- 
 tress, 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 oft 
 La Chalotais. There remains another autlio- 
 rity 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 dis- 
 tinction. This man was a decided partizan of 
 the French parliaments, and well known to be 
 an inveterate enemy of the Jesuits. As his cha- 
 yacter is well drawn in the foiJowing Let- 
 
32 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 ters*, 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 Avhose 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. 
 
 1 will not pretend to go numerically through 
 the catalogue presented in the pamphlet. Pub- 
 
 * See Letter IV. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 33 
 
 lications 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 ene- 
 mies, 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 *, 
 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 sur- 
 face of the subject, so as to show the body clear 
 
 * This, if well executed, would be a very interesting 
 work, and it is not impossible, that it may be attempted. 
 
 F 
 
34 AUTHORITIES COMPAKED 
 
 beneath, is the extent of ray present undertak- 
 ing ; and, if I appear concise, one consideration 
 is in my favour, namely, that imputations ad- 
 vanced by a thousand different writers are not 
 multiplied but repeated, and that reverberations 
 of falsehood are still falsehood. We have al- 
 ready seen, that even the powers and ingenuous- 
 ness 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 Assertiqm, ix 
 work evidently replete with studied fabrications, 
 as is shown by Beaumont, archbishop of Paris, 
 Montesquieu, bishop of Sarlat, and in the Re- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 35 
 
 pofise aux Assertions. I believe, that this 
 Reponse and the Apologie de tlnstitut are the 
 only works written in defence of the society, 
 which the Jesuits publicly avowed. These are 
 unanswerable, and should be referred to by his- 
 torians. 
 
 The characters of Prynne and De Thou are 
 drawn in the following Letters*. De Thou 
 was a parliamentarian. Of Prynne I shall far- 
 ther observe, that, besides his notoriety as a 
 factious agent, lord Clarendon informs us, that 
 he had been looked upon as a man of reproach^- 
 ful character previous to the infamous severities 
 of the star chamber, which was the means of 
 his obtaining consideration, for those of his pro- 
 fession, and others, thought, that persons, in his 
 situation of life, should not be treated so igno- 
 miniously-}-. His character may be viewed in 
 Hume's History J ; and here let me observe, that 
 
 * See Letter III. 
 
 t Lord ClarendQn, vol. i, page 73. 
 
 X Hprae's History of England, vol. vi, page 297, &^. 
 
36 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 it was not only the catholics he attacked, bnt 
 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 abso- 
 lutely reversed the sentence, which had been 
 passed on hinfi and other libellers. " The more 
 ignoble these men were," says Hume, " the more 
 sensible was the insult upon royal authority*." 
 What writer, valuing his own respectability, 
 would cite such a creature as this r 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 be refers for much valuable evidence. 
 
 The pamphlet says, ^^ see Rapin." The name 
 has something less barbarous in the sound than 
 
 * Hume's History of England, vol. vi, page 37S. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 3? 
 
 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, suf- 
 fering 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 pre- 
 tended plots, in the days of Elizabeth and of 
 the Stuarts, cited by a writer in 1815, against 
 the toleration of the catholics * ! Well, but see 
 the state trials^ the actio in proditores, drawn 
 up by our own judges, &c. f "Nothing," says 
 
 * On the subject of the popish plots, see Dr. Milner's 
 Letters to a Prebendary. 
 
 f 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. In- 
 stead of being counsel for the prisoners, as his office 
 required, he pleaded the cause against them, browbeat 
 
38 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 Hume, " can be a stronger proof of the fufy of 
 the times, than that lord Russel, notwithstanding 
 
 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 conric^ 
 tion 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 2^s an indelible disgrace upon the English 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 39 
 
 the virtue and humanity of his character, se- 
 conded the house of commons in the barbarous 
 scruple of the sheriffs" on the power of the 
 king to remit the hanging and quartering of 
 
 nation, in which king, parliament, judges, juries, wit- 
 nesses, prosecutors, have all their respective, though cer- 
 tainly 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 partoolv» 
 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 H, by the right honourable Charles Jame« 
 Fox, page 33. 
 
40 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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, Avhich, 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 viru- 
 lent, 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 hs should he provoked 
 to overwhelm the whole body with damning 
 proofs — proofs charitably kept in pettOy by this 
 insinuator of more than he chooses to say. 
 Speaking of one of the imaginary popish plots, 
 Mr. Fox expresses himself thus : "^ Where fore^ 
 if this question were to be decided upon the 
 ground of authority, the reality of the plot 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 41 
 
 Would be admitted ; but there are cases, where 
 reason speaks so plainly, as to make all argu- 
 ment drawn from authority of no avail, and 
 this is surely one of them." And, a few pages 
 after, we have the following striking passage : 
 f* Even after the dissolution of his last parlia- 
 ment, 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 re- 
 lative to the popish plot, minds, of a very dif- 
 ferent cast from Charles's, became, as by somd 
 fatality, divested of all their wonted sentiments 
 of justice and humanity. Who can read, with- 
 out horror, the account of that savage murmur 
 of applause, which broke out upon one of the 
 villains at the bar swearing positively to Staf- 
 ford's having proposed the murder of the king ? 
 And how is this horror deepened when we 
 reflect, that in that odious cry were, probably. 
 
 G 
 
42 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 ex- 
 cepted) 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 
 bis motive) cannot satisfactorily excuse *." Now 
 what does the writer of the pamphlet before 
 me say ? " It is fashionable, with many rea- 
 soners, 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 steim 
 lights of a vessel, which serve only to throw a 
 light over the path whicli has been passed, and 
 not over that which lies before us. I trust, 
 however, that there are yet many among us who 
 
 ■* Fox*s History of James II, page 40. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 distin- 
 guish the nature of authority; reason, which is 
 bold in the affairs of men, and humble in its per- 
 mitted intercourse with God ; reason, as Fox and 
 Hume, and all historians worthy the title, con- 
 vince us, steps not out of its province when it 
 interposes to rectify misleading records or his- 
 torical 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, there-r 
 fore, he insinuates that sucli reasoners as Hume? 
 
44 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 tak^ it 
 for granted that he means to condemn rea- 
 soning, and to approve of a pertinacious ad- 
 herence to records, however inconsistent and 
 contradictory ; whereas, by his intended simile, 
 he blumes the reasoners for making use of re- 
 cords ; 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 
 travelleis who are coming after on the same 
 road ; stern lights, on the contrary, are inti- 
 mations 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 doe«^ 
 not know the use of stern lights, and imagines 
 that mariners illuminate aft to amuse fishes in 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED, 4S 
 
 the wakes of their shij3S. 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 con- 
 sult his compass and the inquirer his reason *• 
 
 * 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 
 ^his 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 In- 
 quiry into certain vulgar Opinions, Letter xviii), for an 
 interesting account of the Irish clergy and of the Irish poor^ 
 I will content myself with extractii»g a note, or rather 
 reference, from page 182 of the book. 'Mf, gentlemen, 
 you are not under the influence of very gross prejudice, 
 you will, ill receiving representations of the necessitous 
 etate of Ireland^ maturely weigh the allegations of men. 
 
i6 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 But to return from this digression to Rapin, 
 We learn from him, that Elizabeth herself, 
 
 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 indefati- 
 crable. 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 ; notwith- 
 standing- the many great disadvantages under which it la- 
 bours. For instance, you may often find a parish so exten-r 
 sive and populous as to require two or three -clergymen 
 properly to serve it, and yet the poverty of the parish is 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 4/ 
 
 ivhom 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 heen too severe in the 
 tortures they had made these men suiTer*.'* 
 We have only to reflect on this passage of 
 
 such as to be scarcely able to maintain one in a tolerably 
 decent manner. I could point out many other disadvan- 
 tages, 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 Chris- 
 tianity than the lower orders of Xnglishmen/' 
 
 I cannot speak of the catholic priests in Ireland from mv 
 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 pos- 
 sible that anj^ 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, bv 
 anticipation ? But uncongenial records are useless things, 
 like stern lights. 
 
 * Rapin*s History of England, yol. ii, page 344; 
 
48 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 Rapin, to appreciate the evidence furnished by 
 the state trials of those days, the actio in pro- 
 ditoreSy and the reporters of " Criminels de 
 Lege Majeste/' so often cited hy the enemies of 
 the Jesuits. It was not only in catholic coun- 
 tries, 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 testi- 
 mony ; for what they extort is in all probability 
 false, what they fail to extort is in all proba- 
 bility 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 * ! In addition to what Rapia 
 
 * Hume says, that Campion was put to the rack, and, 
 confessing his guilt, was publicly executed. The confes- 
 sion of guilt is not so clearly proved as the putting to the 
 rack. In the life gf Campion the confession is denied; 
 and what Hume himself says immediately before is strong 
 
AND CHARGES HEFUTED. 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 sacerdotihus exitii in patriam 
 conflandi conscios fuisse non credidit*. 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 tol. V, chap, xli, page 238. 
 
 * Page 327, edition 1615. 
 
 H 
 
50 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 ex- 
 posed 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 indigna- 
 tion against the Oateses and BecUoes of the pre- 
 sent day.— "'But even during the recess of par- 
 liament there was no interruption to the prosecu- 
 tion of the catholics accused : the king found him- 
 self obliged to give way to this popular fury. 
 Whitebread, provincial of the Jesuits, Fenwic, 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 wit- 
 ness, 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 assas- 
 sinations 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 dis- 
 ciples 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 
 
55 AlttHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 ap- 
 pearance of some solidity, was afterwards dis 
 covered, when Oates himself was tried for per- 
 jury, to be altogether deceitful. In order far- 
 ther 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 
 treasor. in London. But all these pleas availed 
 them nothing against the general prejudices. 
 They leceived sentence of death ; and were 
 executed, persisting to their last breath, in the 
 most solemn, earnest, and deliberate, though 
 disregarded, protestations of their innocence*." 
 
 * Hume's History of England, vol. viii, chap, Ixvii. 
 page 110. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 5o 
 
 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 theh' 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 re- 
 ibrmation to the present moment, and not with- 
 out symptoms of rebellion, and even of king- 
 killing. Some instances, to show this, will not 
 be uninteresting here. The heads of the re- 
 formers, in Scotland, as we are informed by 
 Hume, being desirous to propagate their prin- 
 ciples, entered privately into a bond, or associa- 
 tion, and called themselves the congregation of 
 
54 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 the Lord, in contradistinction to the established 
 church, which they denominated the congrega- 
 tion 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 gos- 
 pel of Christ and his congregation, ought, accord- 
 ing to our bounden duty, to strive, in our mas- 
 ter'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 w^hole 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 sa- 
 craments to the people : we shall maintain them, 
 nourish them, and defend them, the whole con- 
 gregation of Christ, and every member thereof, 
 by our whole power, and at the hazard of our 
 
AND CHARGES HEFUTED. 55 
 
 lives, against Satan, and all wicked power, who 
 may intend tyranny and trouble against the said 
 congregation : unto which holy word and con- 
 gregation we do join ourselves ; and we for- 
 sake 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 Edin- 
 burgh, 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 incom- 
 patible their pretensions might have been with 
 the policy of the church of Rome, they would 
 have had the praise of opposing tyrannical lavvs 
 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 which they thought helonged to them as the 
 congregation of the Lord, they ordained, that 
 prayers in the vulgar tongue shouhl he 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 commence* 
 raent of it"^.'* 
 
 Whatever the catholic zeal may have pro- 
 duced, nothing can exceed the insolence and 
 seditious spirit of the reformers. Knox s usual 
 appellation of the queen of Scotland, the un- 
 fortunate Mary, was Jezebel " The political 
 principles of that man, which he communicated 
 
 * Hume's History of England, vol. v, chap, xxxviii, 
 page 22, &c. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. bj 
 
 to his brethren, were as full of sedition as his 
 theological were of rage and bigotry *." Was 
 there no treason, was there no regicide doctrine 
 in the following brutal speech, which he ad- 
 dressed 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 *." 
 
 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 pri- 
 vate and temperate characters, a conformity of 
 
 * Hume. 
 I 
 
68 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 soul is one of the bases of friendship. The de- 
 sire 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 mis*- 
 sionaries 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. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 59 
 
 Hume's other objection to the Jesuits was, 
 " their cultivation of learning for the nourish- 
 ment of superstition." Now we very well know 
 how fiir his idea of superstition extended, and 
 that it did not fidl 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 persua- 
 sion, are yet prone to it. What is meant by 
 the superstition nourished hy learning can only 
 he the impression of mysteries, which the un- 
 derstanding, however puzzled, finds sufficient 
 o^rounds 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 con- 
 ceive 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 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 6l 
 
 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 so- 
 ciety, on A^^om the charge might well be turned, 
 changing Hume's derisive epithet of ghostly 
 into two other qualifying words, viz. rebel- 
 lions and revolutionary ; for who will deny 
 that prevarication, perjury, and every crime, 
 have been resorted to, and justified for rebel- 
 lious 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 pre- 
 sumed, that the number of errors was not great. 
 
62 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 theo- 
 logy 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 cfw- 
 sivered the purpose. 
 
 The chief casuists, collected to afisiver the 
 purpose in the new conspiracy against the Jesuits, 
 are the following : Lamy, Moya, Bauny, Ber- 
 ruyer, Casnedi, and Benzi. Since, next to the 
 Monita Secreta, that infamous forgery so com- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 6S 
 
 pktely 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 Chrono^ 
 logiques et Dogmatiques pour servir a VHistoire 
 Ecdesiastique depuis l6oo jusqu'e?i l/lG, 8^0* 
 The author laments the hard fate of relio-ious 
 societies, of which he observes, que toute faute 
 personelle dans le jugement da public devient 
 ^ne faute generale, et les enfans portent Viiti^ 
 quitd de leurs peres jusqua la troisieme et la 
 guatrieme generation, 
 
 * Tom. ii, p. 375. 
 
64 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 liot 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, no- 
 lumus a nobis (hcec) it a sint dicta ut communi 
 sententioe 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 
 iDati, though, perhaps, rather indiscreet in his 
 zeal for the credit of his society. The facts are 
 
AND CHARGES RErUTED. 65 
 
 ihese : a book had been published by one Gre- 
 gory 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 condemn- 
 ation, 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 others 
 
 K 
 
6G AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 with lenity, it is certain he did not spare himself*. 
 His " Sonime 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, unaccom- 
 panied by the sanction or approbation of any 
 Jesuit ; nor was it used in their schools, conse- 
 quently, its doctrines are nowise attributable to 
 the society. It contains several relaxed propo- 
 sitions, deservedly censured by the French 
 clergy in 16-12. 
 
 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 con- 
 victed of blasphemy. He was not a casuist. 
 His " Histoire du Peuple de Dleu" was cen- 
 sured and condemned by Benedict XIV and 
 Clement XIII. He was a man of much eru- 
 dition, and master of an agreeable and grace- 
 ful style, but fond of extraordinary opinions. 
 The chief faults imputed to him are, that he 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. Gj 
 
 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 con- 
 demnation 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 pro- 
 testant 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 with- 
 out being blasphemous ; and who could suspect, 
 that a Jesuit had any correspondent sentiment 
 with protestants r 
 
68 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 ex- 
 pressed in ardent terms, not unlike those nsed 
 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 
 quest to juris, a technical ojnnion, and not a 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 69 
 
 <lecIsion on the subject matter. Malice and 
 calumny did the rest. 
 
 This, I believe, is the triumplmnt list of 
 casuists drawn up, rank and iile^ 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 =^." 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 
 
 * Bayle, article Loyola. 
 
70 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 unne- 
 cessary 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 Por- 
 tusueze," " A true and certain Relation of sun- 
 dry 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 generate 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 
 nevv conspirators to blacken the Jesuits; it iii 
 
aKd charges refuted. 71 
 
 ** Le Franc Discours, or the Memorial pre- 
 sented to Henry IV against them." Did it not 
 become an inquirer into the truth of the acca- 
 sations^ 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 pas- 
 sionate asseverations, nor made the dupe of en- 
 vious persecutions. On the parliament delay- 
 ing to give effect to his edict for the re-establish- 
 ment 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 their first president, Harlay, at their head, who 
 went to the palace to state anew their remon-^ 
 strances. Dupleix, a French historian, says, 
 that Harlay made a long harangue to the king, 
 which " was rather an invective, filled with all 
 the ahuse and outrage in the pleadings of Pas- 
 quier and Arnaud, in the Catechism of Pas- 
 quier, and in the work entitled Franc AviS, 
 against the society, than the speech of a states- 
 man ='^." Henry's reply lies at this moment he- 
 fore me on the tahle, 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 diflliculties, to 
 
 * Dupleix's History of France. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 73 
 
 your thinking, very gi'eat and considerable^ and 
 little know, that I have thought on and consi- 
 dered 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 states- 
 men, and understand state affairs no more than 
 I do the drawing the report of a cause. As to 
 the affair of Poissy^ 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 abi- 
 lities 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 
 jjiever to aspire to any preferment; and, who 
 seek nothing in this world besides serving all 
 that are willing to employ them, without any 
 
 * 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. 
 
 L 
 
74 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 daugh- 
 ters of God * ; and that you are as much of my 
 order of the Holy Ghost as my knights and my- 
 self ? 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 per- 
 sons 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 yon, 
 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 
 
 * Filles Dieu. 
 
aKd charges refuted. 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 set- 
 tlement, 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 uni- 
 versity, 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 
 
?6 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 flock after these masters to Doiiay, and othtfr 
 places, within and without my kingdom. You 
 Siiy, 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 w^ould 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 ac- 
 count of the estates re-annexed to the crown, 
 that seven or eight masters could not be main- 
 tained at Bourges and Lyons ; whereas, when - 
 the Jesuits were there, they were thirty or forty 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 7jr 
 
 ill 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 cu 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 pre- 
 conceived. But, I am inclined to believe, they 
 acted with less malice than others, and that the 
 game 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 com- 
 pass what they will ; and their great care not 
 to change or alter any thing in their institute 
 will he the cause of their stability and long 
 continuance. The vow of obedience they make 
 
'ITS AUTHOR ITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 deter- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 79 
 
 niined 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 soverei2;ns, 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 pre- 
 tends 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. J know the 
 question has been put to many, and gothing 
 
80 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 could ever be got from them, but that theif 
 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 anv other Jesuit. If any one had been ac- 
 cused, 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 wil- 
 lingly, for his sake. I pray daily for my ene- 
 mies ; so far am I from remembering what is 
 past, as you advise me to do, not very like 
 good Christians, for which 1 do not thank you. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. SI 
 
 The Jesuits are natives of my kingdom, and 
 born my subjects ; I will not harbour any sus- 
 picion against those whom their birth has placed 
 tinder 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 pro- 
 ceed 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 ari unbiassed 
 
 H 
 
82 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 in- 
 struction ; their schools and seminaries have 
 been the most celebrated," &c. Again ; '^ It 
 pains me to speak, in these terms, of a com- 
 munity, comprehending many highly respected 
 ecclesiastics, and, in the bosom of which, many 
 of my valuable friends have received their edu- 
 cation," &c. But sir John's " sense of duty 
 overcomes his individual partialities*." 
 
 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 
 
 * See the Substance of a Speech of Sir John Coxe 
 Hippisley, Bart., &c. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 83 
 
 and branch ; for he inserts a note to his speech, 
 in wliich, 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 re- 
 cording the very terms of the sentence : ^- 
 voyit lacer^s et hruUs, dans la cour du palais, 
 par Vexecuteur de la haute justice (the high 
 office translated by sir John common hangman) 
 comme sedltieux, destructifs de toute principe de 
 la morale Chretienne, enseignant une doctrine 
 meurtriere et ahominahle, non-seulement contre 
 la suretd de la vie des cltoyens, mais ni^me contre 
 celle des personnes sacrdes 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 parti- 
 cular objections, and for the preference he 
 would have given to having his statement re- 
 served for the consideration of a select committee, 
 Xhe reader, long before he arrives at this pre- 
 
84 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 ference 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 parti- 
 cular 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 depend^ 
 ence upon foreign jurisdiction. From this ob- 
 jection, 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. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 85 
 
 •u 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 them- 
 selves so foully with Greeks and Lutherans, that 
 the pope will be brought in. The objection is 
 really absurd ; but, on the despotism of the ge- 
 neral, and the blind obedience of the compa- 
 nions of the order, 1 shall make some remarks, 
 when I consider the institute itself; at jiresent, 
 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 reli- 
 pous, as well as Jesuits, paid to their chief 
 
S6 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 superior^ who generally resided at Rome/ was 
 well understood to relate merely to their profes- 
 sional 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, be- 
 fore that time, the native country of their 
 general was a matter of indifference. The 
 nati^^e country of the pope was never alleged as 
 a motive for rejecting his authority. The obe- 
 dience 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^. 
 
A*«ID CHARGES REFUTED. 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 w^as well pleased 
 with the opportunity of snapping her fingers 
 (narguer) at the courts of Versailles and Ma- 
 drid, 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 thei/ 
 were forced to destroy^. It is not for me to 
 
 * Sir John informs us (ibid, page 37), that " there is 
 evidence fully on record'' to show, that Frederic III, of 
 Prussia, acted, with lespect to the Jesuits, upon the 
 " same principles, which influenced the measures of th« 
 empress Catherine/* According to the principles I hav-e 
 thought myself bound to ascribe to her, this concurrence is 
 not unlikely; but, it is yery unlikely, that he preserved 
 them in his dominions through the sad ambition of showing 
 a povirer of managing them. . He had declared, that he-re- 
 
88 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 divine by what means sir John, or his corre- 
 spondent, 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 sav- 
 ing the Jesuits, w^as 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 mys- 
 tery. I am ignorant of any such cause, and, 
 being in the class of ordinary observers, I as- 
 cribe the conduct of the empress to the more 
 generous motives, which she and her two suc- 
 cessors have avowed to the world. These are, 
 the duty of providing for their catholic subjects 
 suitable ministers and teachers ; their knowledge 
 
 tained them, in order to furnish the good seed to catholic 
 prin^i^s, who might one day wish to recover the plant. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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*. These motives 
 
 * The fifth article oi ihsi pacta conventa, confirmed by the 
 erapress*s edict of September 5, 1772, runs in these words : — 
 ** Catholici utriusque ritiis in his provinciis. inhabitantes, 
 qii^e augustissimsEi Russiarum imperatrici ex pacto convento 
 cesserunt, ad civilem statum quod attinet, omnibus posses- 
 slonibus bonisquae suis fruentur. In iis vero quae ad reli- 
 gionem spectant, omnino conservabuntur m statu quo : vide- 
 licet, in eodsm libevo exercitio cultus et disciplinae suce, 
 cum omnibus templis et bonis ecclesiasticis, eodem modo quo 
 possidebantur cum ii catholici sub dominium majcstatis suse 
 imperialis venerunt. Nee majestas sua imperialis nee ejus 
 successores utentur unquam suprema potestate et auctori- 
 tate in detrimentum status quo catholicce Romanae ecclesiee 
 in commemoratis provinciis/' This fifth article Was after-* 
 
 N 
 
go AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 Csesar, in 
 his oration for Marcellus : " Nobilissimam fa- 
 miliam, jam ad paucos redactam, pene ab in-^ 
 teritu vindicasti !" Sir John will not refuse her 
 this compliment, when he discovers the extraor* 
 dinary inaccuracy into which he has been be- 
 trayed by his informer. He asserts*, that 
 Catherine ^'^ secured the tractability of these 
 
 wards fornaliy accepted and agreed to by the empress, the 
 king of Poland, and the pope, in the diet of Poland, Sep- 
 tember 18, 1773, five weeks after the suppression of the so- 
 ciety at Rome. The nuncio Garampi had laboured in vain 
 to obtain the exclusion of the Jesuits from the benefit, 
 of it. 
 
 * Additional note, page 36. 
 
AND CHATIGES REFUTED. 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 conve- 
 niently reside in any other state; but my in- 
 ■formation emboldens me to affirm, that no re- 
 straint 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, Gru- 
 ber, was an Austrian ; the present superior is 
 a Prussian, and if^ctually expected at Rome. 
 
 In a detail of restrictions he mentions the su- 
 perintendence 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARKD 
 
 widely from the information communicated by 
 him. The Jesuits have, ever since their esta- 
 blishment in Russia, been treated with unsus^ 
 pecting liberality. The integrity of their in- 
 stitute has been scrupulously maintained, and the 
 authority given to the catholic archbishop of 
 Mohilow has ever been exactly confined withia 
 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 in- 
 convenience of this, soon had their own chief 
 college of Polosk erected into a university, by 
 which they became exempted from the tempo- 
 rary 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 re^ 
 gular collegiate discipline, whatever be their re- 
 ligion. They attend at divine service, and at 
 public catechisms and instructions. The majo- 
 rity of them are of the national religion, and, if 
 their parents or they themselves desire it/the sa- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 93 
 
 perior of the Jesuits permits a priest of the 
 Greek churcli 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 
 he known at court, hut it was neither enjoined 
 nor recommended by the court. This is the 
 account I have collected of the Jesuits in Russia, 
 and, lam persuaded, that they are not more re- 
 stricted than the catholics in general, whom sir 
 John appears to attack through the Jesuits, for 
 in this long note (page 36), which seemed ex- 
 clusively designed for the exposure of their 
 Russian degradation, he slides unexpectedly 
 into an exposure of '^ the restrictions, w^hich 
 SLtt?ich generalli/ 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 pre- 
 fixed to sir John Hippisley's Speech. In that 
 advertisement we find it to be sir John's opinion. 
 
94 . AUTHORITIES COIVfPAUED 
 
 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 consi- 
 deration of an author favourable to the society ^^ 
 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 com- 
 munion, 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, 
 3ince the date of this bull, namely, Du Pape et 
 des Jesuites, and, Les Jesuites tels qu'ils ont 
 dtd dans rOrdre Politique, Religieux, et MoraL 
 
 ■^ Mr. Plowden, whose book, I am sorry to say, I have 
 not read. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 96 
 
 The first is ascribed to the pen of a Pere de 
 rOratoire, the other announced as the work of 
 M. S'f^'^*, Ancien Magistrat, A perusal of 
 these tracts," continues sir John, " and espe- 
 cially 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 overpoivering French pamphlets alluded to ; 
 but their titles and authors are enough to con- 
 vince 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 cranibe repetitay 
 the dying echoes, of the Jansenists, parliarnent- 
 
96 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 ariaiis, 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 reflec-. 
 tion will bring to his mind, that the most power- 
 ful 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, Con- 
 dorcets, 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 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 9? 
 
 Df 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 Johns 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 
 monarch s, and to yield, that they might not hb 
 forced*. This was peculiarly the case with 
 Clement XIV, whose philosophical name, Gan- 
 ganelli, sir John significantly shoots at us 
 through the rifle of Italics, and it was his 
 
 * " Popes/* says the very pontiff on whom sir John 
 telies, " are pilots, steering almost always through bois- 
 terous seas, and, of course, must spread or shorten sail ac- 
 cording to the weather.'* — Ganganelli's Letters, Letter cxii. 
 
 O 
 
98 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 avowed policy, even before his elevation to tb« 
 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*." — " Little minds imagine, that one must be 
 tlispleased 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 f." This is pretty plain 
 
 ^ GanganelH's Letters, Letter cxii. 
 t Ibid. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 brother- 
 hood 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 tliink, 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 *." These sentiments of 
 cardinal Ganganelli would not serve well for 
 a pendant to the brief of Clement XIV, y^t, 
 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 formi« 
 dable array of pontiffs," which show that 
 Ganganelli " is not the solitary impugner/* 
 among po})es, of the order of Jesuits ? Ganga- 
 nelli tells you, that they Avere tossed on a 
 fitoimy 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 VIl's bull 
 
 * Letter cxiL 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED, 101 
 
 in bis appendix, he declares, tliat 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 
 4ind 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 mi- 
 nisterial conspirators. When, at length, he 
 found it impossible to resist them, without in* 
 curring the loss of his states, " he gave sentence, 
 
102 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 that it should be as they required^." He re- 
 sorted 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 -f-. 
 Bat here three things sorely distressed him : the 
 incongruity and injustice of condemning the 
 Jesuits without a trial, which he knew the mi- 
 nisters 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 con- 
 stitution, or bull, of his immediate predecessor, 
 Clement XIII, solemnly published, and re- 
 ceived by the whole church. The applicants 
 for the destruction of the order undertook to re- 
 move his scruples. 
 
 I am obliged to sir John for drawing my at- 
 tention to Ganganelli's brief, which I might 
 otherwise have passed over without ri»uch scru- 
 
 * St Luke, chap, xxiii. verse 24. 
 
 t Letter cxii. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 103 
 
 tiny. He is of opinion, that it should accom- 
 pany the bull of the reigning pontiff; but some 
 connoisseurs may think, that it will show to 
 more advantage exhibited between the just men* 
 tioned bull apostollcum of Clement XIII and that 
 of Pius VII : it would thus have a ])endant 
 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 de- 
 struction, not easy to be evaded. It was so 
 recent, so public, so solemn, so decisive. It 
 was a distinct and specific approbation and con- 
 firmation 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 cardi- 
 nals, and was applauded by them all ; it was ac- 
 cepted by every catholic bishop ; it had every 
 character of a formal judgment of the whole 
 catholic church. Clement XIV and his ad- 
 visers 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 AOTHORITIES COMPARE© 
 
 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 beeir 
 extorted rather than grdnted, 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*^* 
 
 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 uarra- 
 
 * Appendix No. I, 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 105 
 
 tion of the suppression of various small religi- 
 ous associations by ancient popes, but it leaves 
 us quite in the dark as to the justice or injus- 
 tice 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 dis- 
 regarded, by those several popes, whose public 
 acts attest that they were, one and all, friends 
 and supporters of the society*. The brief then 
 recites the jus, or leading maxim, on which the 
 whole procedure hinges, and which, in spite of 
 
 * 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, pub- 
 licly 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 aftet 
 his election, September 27, 1590. 
 
 P 
 
106 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 
 hefore courts of justice must he avoided; that 
 reliance must he placed wholly on that pleni- 
 tude 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 
 dealing themselves f^orn 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 he 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 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 107 
 
 this brief, then, we find the operative or sup- 
 pressing clause made to depend upon a paltry 
 sophism. Stating the demands and wishes of 
 his dear sons, the kings and ministers, with 
 the additition 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 pre- 
 cipitate, but to take due time to examine at tent iveli/y 
 weigh carefully y dinA wisely debate w^onity 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 govern- 
 ment of the qlerhs of the company of Jesus, that 
 
lOS AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 the}/ might not he hindered from being useful to 
 God and fii^ 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 confrrnation. 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 im- 
 mediately follows : " actuated by so many and 
 important considerations," &c. &c., and im- 
 pelled by fear, for that is the import of the 
 following sentences, *^ we do suppress and 
 
 ABOLISH THE SAID COMPANY." The Ouly 
 
 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 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 10,9 
 
 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 apj)ro- 
 bation of his predecessors, and the appeals of 
 the intriguers of the nations around him against 
 the Jesuits, At last, the Inquisition^ of Spain 
 {see page 20), press so strongly, that Sixtus V 
 determines to examine the matter ; hut he 
 is served the misfortune by death, and his 
 successor, Gregory XIV, approves of the insti^ 
 tution 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 (p^ge 
 21). In short, neither in the multifarious 
 preamble, nor in the short actuating clause, does 
 Clement XIV once advance an opinion of his 
 
 * 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 connectec} 
 ■^ith the Inquisition ? 
 
110 AUTHORITIES COMPARE^ 
 
 own adverse to the society ; but throughont 
 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 de- 
 claration, 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 confirma- 
 tion, to suppress and abolish a society, to whom 
 he knew it was doubtful, whether religion an^ 
 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 peaci^ 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. Ill 
 
 and amity with the philosophical ministers, 
 Pombal, Choiseiil, Aranda, &c. The pontifical 
 domain was to be saved ; the portions of it 
 already seized, Avignon, Benevento, Ponte- 
 Corvo^ &c., to be restored ; the tmbulent Je- 
 suits extinct, harmony and concord were to 
 bless the earth ! How were these glorious 
 prospects realized ? Every succeeding year in- 
 volved 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 Inqui- 
 sition, in Portugal by Pombal, and in France 
 "by the Jansenists, the parliaments, and philo- 
 sophers : how just and wise we have seen ; let 
 us now inquire whence results their restoration 
 
112 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 vene- 
 rable brethren, the archbishops and bishops*^ 
 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-establisment 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 
 
 * This is directly in contradiction to sir JohtiHippisley's 
 remark of the influence of the Jesuits being considered 
 as so exceptionable, even by prelates of their own com* 
 miiility. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 con- 
 clusive in their favour ; and, in spite of the 
 popish plots, it has been proved, that their reli- 
 gious doctrines never led them, as a body, to 
 interfere in political affairs. These motives for 
 their re-establishment, and my last observation, 
 tiaturally remind me, that it is time to state the 
 tiuthorities, so highly honourable to the society, 
 \vhich I have been induced to examine and 
 collect ; there are, however, two other circum- 
 stances 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 AUTkORITIES COMPARED 
 
 In all religious orders, candidates for priest-^ 
 hood 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 rehgious 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, in- 
 curring thus a certain responsibility. Of this 
 subjection of regulars to the established pre- 
 lates, 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 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 115^ 
 
 furtive ordinations beyond the seas will vanish 
 before a plain relation of a few trifling facts. In 
 ] 806 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 w^as 
 daily increasing, by the arrival of new regiments, 
 they entered into holy orders, though, it ap- 
 pears, 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 stu- 
 dents, who were impressed with a strong desire 
 to study in a catholic university, w^ent also, 
 at different times, to Palermo, where they 
 experienced a similar disappointment in their 
 ?eal. Two of the students left Sicily before 
 they were ordained, and one died before 
 ordination, leaving nine, the whole numbei:^ 
 
Il6 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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* appro- 
 priating 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 insti- 
 tution of Maynooth ; and is for seizing, and 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 117 
 
 bestowing on Maynooth, thirty thousand pounds 
 of their money, which they are said to have 
 generously transmitted to Ireland^ for the esta- 
 blishment of a place of education (page 39 
 of the printed Speech). How ^vould this agree 
 w^ith 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 phi- 
 losophers ? Besides, the institution of M<iy- 
 nooth, and the establishment intended differ 
 widely : the college of Maynooth is particu- 
 larly designed for clerical education ; that to 
 which the thirty thousand pounds is to be de- 
 voted 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 w^ould be, I was going to say, 
 Uiadness ; it would surely be unwise, io check. 
 
118 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 on old worn-out prejudices^ the happy growth 
 of a spirit, which has, in that country, met 
 much to struggle wath, and only wants to he 
 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, ivas 
 Thot secured hy the Jesuits from the ivreck of the 
 society : it is, strictly, the private property of a 
 fre€ Briton. This, I am informed, on good 
 authority, is the fact ; hut, supposing it had 
 been saved by the Jesuits from the ruin of theii^ 
 continental establishments, from Avhich they 
 were so cruelly turned adrift, and plundered by 
 despots, because they w^ere 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 despotiq. 
 
And charges refuted. ll^ 
 
 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 
 ofpower^ which the pope possesses, as moderator 
 of the Christian republic," it is far otherwise in 
 this happy land, where men, no longer perse- 
 cuted for their religious opinions, maintaining 
 their sworn allegia.ice 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 opi- 
 nions freely; I trust I have not done it coarsely. 
 I w^as 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 AUTHORITIES C0Mt*AliEl5 
 
 boy, upon the same principle that I was pleased 
 with the meeting of the Etats Generaiix, in 
 1789, at Versailles, where I was a spectators 
 a philosophical pope^ and a philosophical senate, 
 were mental bon hons, 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. 
 
 1 now return to our authorities. I have an-' 
 ticipated 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 
 abb^ Proyart, author of a v/ork entitled, Louis 
 XVI dethrone avant d'etre Roi ; Montesquieu, 
 Haller, Muratori, Buifon, Grotius, Leibnitz, Ba- 
 con, Frederick the Great, Johnson, Bausset, Riche- 
 lieu, Raynal, Juan, and Uiloa ; with a multitude 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 121 
 
 of historians and biographers^ to say nothing of 
 the Jesuit writers themselves. Bat 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 examina- 
 tion, 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 ca- 
 lumnies and horrors of the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth 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, Avho pre- 
 
 R 
 
122 AUTHOBITIES COMPARED 
 
 ceded the settled tyranny, v^hich 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 
 ovj^n 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 men- 
 tioned them. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 123 
 
 CATHERINE II, OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Catheiine, when at MohilofF, found, tliat 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 ap- 
 pointed a catholic archbishop of Mohiloff, and 
 gave him a Jesuit as a coadjutor. She per- 
 mitted, 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 Mohiloif's coadjutor, 
 whose name was Benelawski, to Rome, as mi- 
 nister 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 follow- 
 ing passages are extracted from the letter : " I 
 knowj that your holiness is under considerable 
 
124 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 embarrassments. Your dignity cannot harmo- 
 nize 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 quali- 
 fied to instruct my subjects, and to inspire them 
 with sentiments of humanity and the genuine 
 principles of the Christian religion. I am resolv- 
 ed 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, 1 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*." The pope made the circumstance 
 
 * Castera's History of Catherine IT. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 Cle- 
 ment XIV with disrespect, nor to embroil him- 
 self with France or Spain; and, in complying 
 with the request of Catherine, he acted with 
 circumspection and without parade. In con- 
 sidering this event, an obvious remark presents 
 itself: for upwards of thirty years past, the so- 
 ciety 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 th^ 
 mind has made rapid strides. The placing of 
 the Jesuits in her dominions is a proof of th« 
 
126 AtJTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 sagacity of Catherine, and I doubt whether 
 Russia was ever more indebted to any sovereign 
 than for this step, which was at once magnani- 
 mous, 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 inter- 
 fered in the proceedings and writings of the 
 members of the society ; that they blamed them 
 for the dissentions in which their zeal in- 
 volved 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 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 127 
 
 been already noticed in these pages ; and 
 this is all that can be gathered from the re- 
 script ; but that this renders the popes im- 
 jiugners 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 
 impiigner, I presume, that sir John means 
 assailant ; now, that the disapproval of some 
 casuists, and the blaming of untimely or mis- 
 placed 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 t]:e 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. 
 
iSS AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 re- 
 ceived 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 calum- 
 nies, is treated as a pest, which had crept into 
 the church, and is publicly burned with all the 
 marks of infamy*.'* 
 
 GANGANELLI. 
 
 Enough has been said of Clement XIV, ift 
 the foregoing pages, to entitle me to place him 
 among the authorities in favour of the Jesuits, 
 
 * Clement XIII's Letter of the 9th July, 1763, to the 
 archbishops and bishops of France, 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 desti-uction 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, 
 
 s 
 
130 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 or ridiculed^, and soon lost even its name in 
 that of superstition. In 177^5 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 fol- 
 lowed impiety ; demons were chosen to rule, or 
 rather to confound all order. A successor of 
 Ganganelli was torn from Rome, to die in cap- 
 tivity; 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 1 77^ 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 h^ cultivated, with that which is de- 
 
AMD CHARGES REFUTED. 131 
 
 structive 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 eleva- 
 tion 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 
 
tS2 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 pope : that^ if it was desired, he would call a 
 council, ill which every thing should he dis- 
 cussed 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." Ne- 
 vertheless, without calling a council, without 
 hearing their defence, he destroyed them ; and, 
 certainly, it will ever be a matter of astonish- 
 ment, that, in a cause of such magnitude, a 
 Koman 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 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 133 
 
 he, which is accused, have the accusers face to 
 face, and have licence to answer for himself 
 concerning the crime laid against him*." 
 
 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 had 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-hell 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 
 
 * Acts of the Apostle?, chap, xxv, verse 15. 
 
134 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 him, when speaking of Monclar's Compte 
 Rendu*. 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 at- 
 tacked, 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." * 
 
 * See page 29. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED, 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 plac^ 
 him in the list here, for the purpose of inserting 
 some farther extracts from his Letters. When 
 
136 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 176^? 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 subse- 
 quent letters he declares, that " a general re- 
 volution was making its appearance in every 
 quarter; that philosophy was gaining strength 
 in the north of Germany ; that similar revo- 
 lutions were taking place in Poland, Italy, and 
 Spain." Such was the rapid effect of the sub- 
 stitution of philosophical to religious education ! 
 However borne away by the charms of philo- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 137 
 
 Sopby, 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. 
 
 MONTESaUIEU. 
 
 Montesquieu, mentioning the government of 
 Paraguay, then under the guidance of the 
 Jesuits, as an instance, among other extraordi- 
 nary 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 most dangerous wounds the human race ever 
 received. They have drawn wild people from 
 woods^ secured them regular maintenance, and 
 clothed their nakedness ; hut even, had they 
 done no more than add to the stock of indus- 
 try among men, that would have been doing 
 a great deal*.'* 
 
 BUFFON. 
 
 " The missions," says this celebrated natu- 
 ral 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 con- 
 stantly maintained by the missionaries, made 
 their way to the hearts of the savages, and con- 
 quered their distrust and their ferocity. They 
 
 * Spirit of Laws, Book IV, chap. vi. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED, 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. No- 
 thing can do more honour to religion than to 
 have civilized those nations and laid the foun- 
 dations of an empire, with no other arms than 
 those of virtue*." 
 
 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 
 
 * Dissertation on the Varieties of the Human Species* 
 
140 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 
 np 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 hajjpiness*," 
 
 MURATORI. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to observe, that Mura- 
 tori'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 
 
 * Tracts on several interesting Subjects in Politics and 
 Morals. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 141 
 
 the age by the literati of Europe. He was born 
 in 1672 and died in 1750. He was uncon- 
 nected with the society of the Jesuits^ and the 
 high praises he bestows upon them could, there- 
 fore, only have been dictated by a just esteem 
 and admiration. The following extracts are 
 from his work entitled, // Crist lanesslmo felice 
 nella missioni dd 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 thd 
 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 wquld undoubtedly, 
 and that very soon, lay aside former prejudices, 
 ^nd, perhaps, what he had seen would suffice 
 
142 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 "to make him renounce his error." After enu- 
 merating, briefly, the charges against the Jesuits 
 of America, such as their making themselves 
 petty princes ; engrossing the commerce of Pa- 
 raguay; becoming dangerously wealthy and 
 powerful ; bribing governors ; robbing the In- 
 dians, 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 mis- 
 sionaries of Paraguay. I will advance nothing 
 without clear proofs. I am not afraid of af- 
 firming, that all these imputations are calumnies 
 and detestable forgeries, suggested by envy and 
 malice." He then proceeds to prove them to be 
 such *. 
 
 * See the English edition of his work, called " A 
 Relation of the Missions of Paraguay/' pages 113, 181, 
 et passim. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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*, " in spite of his sceptical vanity, 
 appeared sometimes to be convinced of the dan- 
 gerous 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 
 
 * M. Lally Tolendal. 
 
144 AUTHORITIES COMI^AUEt) 
 
 wolves, and they do not perceive that they are 
 ahout to be devoured." Whomever the king of 
 Prussia meant by the vrolves, it is well known, 
 that the same parliament that devoured the 
 Jesuits in 1/64, were equally disposed to de- 
 vour 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 abb6 Rofette about 
 the destruction of the Jesuits, and condemnet^ 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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. Omers*." 
 
 BAUSSET. 
 
 Bausset, bishop of Meth, in a Life of Fene- 
 Ion, published so lately as the year ISoy, 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 educa- 
 tion of the principal families of the state, they 
 
 * See the Life prefixed to bis Sermons, 
 
 U 
 
146 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 extended their cares to the inferior classes, and 
 kept them in the happy habits of religious and 
 moral virtue." — " They had the merit of at- 
 tracting 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*=." 
 
 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 ac- 
 count of the settlement of Paraguay, and I do 
 not think it necessary here to extend their testi- 
 mony. 
 
 ^ Bausset's Life of Fenelon, vol. i, page 21, &;c. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 14? 
 
 RICHELIEU. 
 
 When the four ministers of Charenton pre- 
 sented very heavy accusations against the Je- 
 suits to Louis XII I5 cardinal Richelieu an- 
 swered 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 re- 
 spect 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 l6lO, 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 ABBE RAYNAI-. 
 
 To the foregoing testimonies^ let us add that 
 of one of the bitterest enemies of Christianity* 
 ^' The magnificence of the ceremonies/' says 
 Raynal^ " attracts tlie Indians to the churches, 
 wliere they find pleasure and piety united. 
 Tliere it is that religion is amiable, and it is at 
 first in her ministers that she there gains Jove. 
 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 pa- 
 rishioners. There his authority is not felt, for 
 he orders, prohibits, and punishes, only Avhjit 
 is punished, prohibited, and ordered by the 
 religion, which all of them, as well as he, wor- 
 ship and cherish." — '' A government in whicli 
 nobody is idle, nobody works to excess ; in 
 which food is wholesome, plentiful, and impar- 
 tially partaken by all the citizens, who are 
 conveniently lodged, conveniently clothed ; in 
 
AKD CHARGES RETUTED. 149 
 
 which old persons, widows, orphans, and the 
 sick, find a succour unknown in any other part 
 of the glohe ; in which every one marries ac- 
 cording to inclination, and without interest ; and 
 where large families are a comfort, without a pos- 
 sibility of becoming a burthen ; in which the de- 
 bauchery inseparable from idleness, that equally 
 corrupts opulence and poverty, never accelerates 
 the degradation, or rather the decline of humau 
 life ; in which factitious passions are never ex- 
 cited, and well-regulated desires never thwarted; 
 in which tbe advantages of commerce are en- 
 joyed, 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 igno- 
 miny, or to punishment of any duration; and in 
 which the verv name of a tax or of a lawsuit is 
 
150 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 unknown." Listen, I pray, to this account, 
 from a quarter so unsuspected, of " the slavery 
 in which the Jesuits held the Indians of Para- 
 guay, and the atrocities which they exercised 
 there ;" for such is the hmguage of their as-* 
 sailant, whom one must be surj)rised to find 
 unacquainted with the writings of such an au- 
 thor as Raynal. 
 
 THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 
 
 There are forty- five names of bishops sub^ 
 scribed to a reply made by them to certain 
 articles proposed for their examination by 
 Louis XV. Their judgment is given at con- 
 siderable 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. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 l682; 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 con- 
 venient to moderate and set bounds to the au- 
 
152 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 thority, which the general of the Jesuits exer- 
 cises 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 *. 
 
 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 
 
 * Appendix, No. II. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 153 
 
 chief Climes 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 npon 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 
 
 X 
 
154 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 eccle- 
 siastical 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'^. The countries, 
 where we hear of Jesuits, are inhabited by 
 cannibals, by Hurons, Iroquois, Canadians, 
 lllinoise, Negroes, Ethiopians, Laplanders, 
 Tartars ; they are barren deserts, eternal snows, 
 burning sands, gloomy forests ; there did these 
 amhitlous men live on wild herbs and bitter 
 
 * See the Institute, vol. ii, p. 74. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 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 Avhich men devote 
 their time, for the purpose of obtaining a liveli- 
 hood, and of amassing fortunes. It is a pur- 
 suit inconsistent with the habits and duties of 
 the ministers of religion. This is the imputa- 
 tion 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 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 commo- 
 dities, in those savage countries. If this did not 
 militate against the spirit that prohibits com- 
 merce 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 in- 
 dolent, 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 
 Chiijuitos, who are industrious, careful, and 
 frugal ; and their genius so happily adapted to 
 commerce, as not to sta^nd in need of any factors. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. IbJ 
 
 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 cul- 
 tivating a plantation, filled with all kinds of 
 grain and fruits, for the priest; the remainder, 
 after this decent support, being applied to pur- 
 chase ornaments for the churches. That the In- 
 dians 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 ex- 
 change, 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 stu- 
 diously preserved. The goods received in ex- 
 change 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 stofjk of goods is laid in. The 
 
158 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 principal intention of tbis 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 tlieir intercourse with the inhabitants of other 
 countries, where the d« pravity of human nature 
 is not corrected by such good examples and 
 laws*." This is the commerce, the only com- 
 merce carried on by the Jesuits ; a commerce, 
 that the apostles themselves would have main- 
 tained 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. Pe- 
 ter s, ruined the mission at Martinique, and the 
 cause of the Jesuits in France. What numerous 
 body can be answ^erable for every individual of 
 it ? The circumstances attending the conduct 
 of Lavalette are not very clear ; but to contend 
 
 * Juan and Ulloa, Vol. II. chap, xv, p. 179 and 180. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 159 
 
 for his innocence is not necessary to the cha- 
 racter 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 de- 
 nounced, 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 tbat 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 de- 
 
iGO AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 tectine, so eager to expose snch of the mission- 
 aries, 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 sow- 
 ing the seeds of revolt, is equally unmerited. It is 
 true, that the Jesuits were assiduous in prevent- 
 ing all personal intercourse between the Indians 
 and the Spaniards and Portugueze, for which 
 they were charged with a seditious intention of 
 throwing oflf 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 as- 
 siduity of the Jesuits, in excluding the Euro- 
 peans from the Indians ; motives, v»^hich merit 
 honour here and crowns of glory hereafter. 
 The reader will thank me for communicating 
 them in the simple and affecting language of 
 tlie Spanish travellers last cited. ^' The mis- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. iBl 
 
 siohary fathers will not allow any of the inha- 
 bitants of Peru, whether Spaniards or others^ 
 Mestizos or even Indians, to come within their 
 missions in Paraguay. Not with a view of con- 
 cealing their transactions from the world ; or 
 that they are afraid lest others should supplant 
 them of part of the products and manufactures j 
 «or for any of those causes, which, even with 
 less foundation, envy lias 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 in- 
 itiated 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 at- 
 tention they pay to the instructions of their 
 teachers, be once laid aside, the shining ad- 
 vantages of these settlements would soon come 
 
 y 
 
l62 AUTHORITIES COMPAKED 
 
 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 civi- 
 lized 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 
 ofPeru^ whose decline from their former hap- 
 piness and piety is the effect of an open inter- 
 course =*." It is also true, that the Indians did 
 revolt, if that term can be applied to an act ren- 
 dered 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 
 
 ^ Juan and Ulloa, Vol, II, chap, xv, p. 182 and 18^. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. l63 
 
 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 Avere mines of gold, 
 unknown to the inhabitants. On these he cast 
 his eyes, and commenced an intrigue for ex- 
 changing 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 trans- 
 ported. The Jesuits were ordered to dispose 
 the people to transmigrate. They, at first, ven- 
 tured to represent modestly the difficulty of such 
 a removal, and to conjure the officers of govern- 
 ment 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 expostula- 
 tion was expected. The consequences present a 
 history, that might draw tears from the most ob- 
 durate. Now would have been the time for th^ 
 
l64 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 ex- 
 ecuted at all, required years. This precipita- 
 tion 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 Portu- 
 gal* 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 w^ar, confusion, and mi- 
 sery. Those Indians, previously so flexible, so 
 docile, insensibly lost that spirit of submission 
 and simplicity, which had distinguished them. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. 1 65 
 
 and they every wbere prepared to make a vigo- 
 rous resistance. The contest lasted a considera- 
 ble time, during which the Indians experienced 
 some success, hut were ultimately defeated ; 
 some of them burnt their towns and betook 
 themselves in thousands to the woods and 
 mountains, where they perished miserably. 
 After ?jurveying 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 di- 
 rector 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. Tliey, of course, paid no attention to 
 the entreaties of a man, whose insatiable avidity 
 Jbad caused the ruin of thirty thousand of their 
 fellow creatures ; and it was not till Charles III 
 succeeded to the ^rown of Spain, that the treaty, 
 
166 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 sini- 
 plicity, which were superseded by European de- 
 bauchery, hypocrisy, and perfidy ; vices that 
 formed a new and almost insurmountable ob- 
 stacle to the progress of religion, in those im- 
 mense regions, where, for so many years, it 
 had flourished^. 
 
 Having shov/n the pious nature of the am- 
 bition, 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 
 
 * See Memoirs of the Ministry of Carvalho, Marquis 
 de Pombal. 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. iGj 
 
 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 com- 
 hination of passions and talents, operating on 
 the progress of human affairs, has spread over 
 the character of men, who appear to me to have 
 heen 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 plac- 
 ing it before him superfluous. 
 
l6S AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 *^ Avignon and the Comtat had been declared, 
 by the assembly, united to France. Jourdan, 
 surnamed Coup-f^te^ 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. Sym})horien, 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 fa- 
 ther and refuge of the indigent, the consoler of 
 the afflicted, the adviser and friend of the in- 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. I69 
 
 liabitants, 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. Mar- 
 tyrdom, the glory of shedding his blood for 
 Jesus Christ, for his church, or for the faithful, 
 w^re, 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 counte- 
 nance always serene, and always beaming an- 
 gelic joy, with peace of conscience. His body, 
 clothed with the hair-shirt, had needed the 
 «trong constitution, with which nature had en- 
 dowed him, to support him under the mortifica- 
 tions, watchings, and fasts he endured, through 
 all the activity of a minister and the austerity of 
 
 z 
 
170 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 an anchorite. Daily at prayer and meditation 
 long before light ; daily visiting the sick and 
 the poor, whom he never left Avithout admi- 
 nistering, 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 con- 
 summate 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 unbappy 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 cf the 
 quick and the dead : ' I come to die with you, 
 my children : we are ail going together to ap- 
 pear before God. How I thank him for having 
 sent me to prepare your souls to appear at his 
 
AND CHARGES REFUTED. l/l 
 
 tribunal ! Come, my children, the moments 
 are precious ; to-morrow, perhaps today, 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 
 seal among you. Add to the hope, that God 
 will receive myself into his bosom, the happi- 
 ness of being able to present you to him, as 
 children all of Avhom 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 con- 
 fess 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 im- 
 pressed 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 
 
1^2 AUTHORITIES COMPARED 
 
 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 ont, with all their force and killed them. 
 The bodies were then delivered to other execu- 
 tioners, who mangled the limbs and disfigured 
 them with sabres, to render it impossible for 
 the children . nd friends of the persons to dis- 
 tirsnish them. After this, the remains were 
 thrown into the infernal ])it, called the ice- 
 house. Meanwhile, M. Nolhac, within the 
 prison, continued exhorting and em])racing 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 un- 
 shaken fortitude*." — Nolhac was a Jesuit! 
 
 * Banuel's His'oire du Ckrge pendant la Revolution 
 FranqoLe, pa^e 152. 
 
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 
 iniposed upon, and their feelings betrayed, as to 
 be tamely led into the views of the destroyers. 
 
1/4 OF THE ORDER 
 
 not only of this religious order, but of religion 
 itself, and of social order. 1 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 king- 
 dom. They were never more than a small de- 
 tachment of missionary priests, privately officiat- 
 ing to the scattered catholics, like other priests, 
 sent from the English seminaries of Rome, 
 Douay, Valladolid, and Lisbon. They were dis- 
 tinguished only by more pointed severity of the 
 ancient penal statutes, which the wisdom and 
 liberality of the legislature has considerably re- 
 laxed. This greater severity arose, not from 
 their conduct, but from the general prejudice 
 against their order; and, in England, this pre- 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 1/5 
 
 judice 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 ojiposed^ or ever so successfully tri- 
 umphed over opposition. Their assiduity, in 
 their multifarious relations to the puhlic, in all 
 countries, where they had settlements ; in their 
 schools and seminaries, in pulpits and confes- 
 sionals, in hospitals and workhouses, in the 
 cultivation of sciences, in national and foreign 
 missions ; all this professional husiness afforded 
 them a large field for exertion, and enahled 
 them to recommend themselves to kings, pre- 
 lates, 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 Avere confined to 
 administer the rites of reli^^ion to their brethren 
 
176 OF THE ORDER 
 
 in private houses ; they were necessitated to live 
 ^geparate ; they were forced to disguise their pro- 
 fession and character, and frequently their very 
 flames; they lived under the laws, and they 
 ^ere not protected by the laws ; they knew, 
 that the distorted character, drawn of then* 
 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 (1 take the 
 fvord in its full meaning) associated with th^ 
 ideal of every crime. 
 
 In foreign countries, the Jesuits formed £| 
 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 
 
 ^ 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 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 de- 
 struction ; or they were rivals, who vied with 
 them in some branches of the public administra- 
 tion of religion. From these sources proceeded, 
 at diiferent times, that undigested mass of cri- 
 minations, 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 ; 
 
 2 a 
 
178 OF THE ORDER 
 
 ?ind this they renounced hy vow. The people/ 
 in all townSj even in villages, felt their gratui- 
 tous 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 instruc- 
 tion of their children, their own consciences, 
 their souls. In those days, not only kings, but 
 ministers of kings, and the great bulk of their' 
 Dpbles and people, believed in religion. They 
 were sons of men, who had fought hard battlea 
 in France and Germany, in defence of catholic 
 unity, against confederate sects, who, had con- 
 spired to overturn it. Voltaire had hot yet ap^ 
 peared among them. Religion was not yet pre- 
 sented to them as an object of ridicule. They 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 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 calcu- 
 lated to form its followers to the active service 
 of the altars^ which they respected. 
 
 An idea of the institute of the Jesuits can- 
 not be formed without consulting the original 
 code; and the first inspection of it shows the 
 author to have been a man of profound think- 
 ing, and eminently animated with the spirit of 
 religious zeal. Ad major em Dei gloriam was 
 the motto of Ignatius of Loyola, the main prin- 
 ciple 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 vir- 
 tues of the Redeemer; and, in planning his 
 institute, he compressed them all into one rul- 
 ing motion of zeal, which, in his ideas, was the 
 purest emanation of charity, the summit of 
 
180 OF THE OllDER 
 
 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 ojjcning the institute. It is the 
 first thing, on which every candidate is ques- 
 tioned ; and, if he be accepted, the first thing 
 to which lie is apj)lie(l. This alone decides 
 upon the admisMon and dismission of subjects; 
 this regulates their advancement in virtue and 
 letters, tlie preservation of their health, the im- 
 provement of their talents, the distribution and 
 allotiuent of their employments. Masters must 
 teach, and students must learn, only to advance 
 the greater glory of God : this is the rule of su- 
 periors, who command ; the motive of subjects, 
 who obey: this alone is considered in the esta- 
 blishment of domestic discipline, in the forma-^ 
 tion of laws and rules : it is the bond, which 
 connects all, the spring, which moves all; 
 every impulse given to the society must pro^ 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE, 181 
 
 ceed 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 in- 
 stitute 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 religions 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 sauc- 
 tity. To men acting upon such a principle, no 
 virtue could ever be foreign, because every vir- 
 tue 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 as- 
 sociates, the full practice of evangelical poverty, 
 perfect purity, and intire obedience to lawful 
 
182 OF THE ORDER 
 
 authority ; and these virtues must he 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 disinterest- 
 edness in their several functions, &c. He con- 
 ceived, that God's glory would be procured by 
 the practice of these exalted virtues ; but, faith- 
 ful 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 emu- 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 1S3 
 
 lated 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 mod© 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 au- 
 thor of it thought attainable by human weak- 
 ness. He prescribes in it a variety of means, 
 which his followers must employ, to yield ser- 
 vice 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 
 
1S4 OF THE ORDER 
 
 person, conversant in the affairs of the catholic 
 church, will allow, that, by the constant at- 
 tention of the superiors, not any means of help- 
 ing the public, which the founder had pre- 
 scribed, 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 counte- 
 nance 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 church* 
 men could yield to the public, foreign to his 
 society. Without pretending to enumerate the 
 Tarious duties and occupations, which he recom- 
 mends 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 tbeir subjects. 
 They are, good example; prayer: works of 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 185 
 
 charity to the poor, the imprisoned, the dis- 
 eased ; the writing of books of piety and reli- 
 gious instruction ; the use of the sacrament of 
 penance; preaching; pious congregations ; spi- 
 ritual 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 theip 
 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, work- 
 houses, and lazarets, were the constant scenes 
 
 2 B 
 
186 OF THE ORDER 
 
 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, Avho, 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 ? 
 
 JE^, lib. i. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 18/ 
 
 Their perseverance iu this field of zeal was 
 universally admired ; it secured success d<jring 
 more than two centuries; and the- latest mis- 
 sionary expeditions of their society proved, that 
 the original spirit was not decayed. Whoever 
 had caught it from the institute oi Ignatius was 
 a scholar without pride ; a man disengaged from 
 his own conveniences; indifferent to his employ- 
 ment, to country, to climate ; suhmissive to 
 guidance ; capable of living alone, and of edi- 
 fying in public ; happy in solitude, content in 
 tumnlt ; never misplaced. In a word, great 
 purity of manners, cultivated minds, knowledge 
 without pretensions, close study without recom- 
 pence, 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 
 
1S8 OF THE ORDER 
 
 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 henii^ 
 sphere, 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 dege- 
 nerate, 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 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE, ISQ 
 
 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 give|i 
 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 ^, 
 
 * Infinite are the false reports, made by interested 
 writers, of the missions of South America. The solid re- 
 futation 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. 
 
lOO OF THE ORDER 
 
 The Jesuits were advancing, with gigantic 
 strides, to the very centre of South America, 
 they were actually civilizing the Ahiponian bar- 
 barians, when their glorious course was inter- 
 rupted by the wretched policy of Lisbon and 
 Madrid. The missionaries of South America 
 w^ere 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 
 Ahiponibus, 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'^ proves the per- 
 suasion 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 
 
 * See vol. \, page 5S. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. I9I 
 
 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 pre- 
 sence 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 dis- 
 solution of all the Reductions, in consequence of 
 the inability of the royal officers to substitute 
 other missionaries to those, whom they had 
 ejected*. 
 
 Diflferent was the providence of the superiors 
 
 * In 1768, when the Jesuit missionaries from Spanish 
 America arrived at Cadiz, a number cf 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 
 
192 OF THE ORt)ER 
 
 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 al- 
 most useless, without the knowledge and prac- 
 tical 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 com- 
 mence schoolmasters, during five or six succeed- 
 ing years, in the several colleges of their re- 
 spective provinces. It was generally at this 
 
 from California, reported, that, before they were brought 
 away from Mexico, the priests, who had been sent into 
 California, to take their abandoned stations, retm-ned ia 
 the ship, in which they had been sent out, refusing, one 
 and all, to dwell in such a country. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 193 
 
 peViod 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 Tu- 
 cumaw, where, in expectation of priesthood, 
 they made a close study of the barbarous lan- 
 guages, which they were afterwards to speak in 
 their missions. These were usually selected 
 from the number of those, who had sponta- 
 neously 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 
 
 2 c 
 
194 OF THE ORDER 
 
 his society would be only temporary, unless he 
 could perpetuate them through every rising ge- 
 neration, as it came forward in succession. 
 Every professed Jesuit was bound by a sj)ecial 
 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 con- 
 tributed 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 la- 
 bour, a disgust of dissipation, a custom of se- 
 rious 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. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 195 
 
 that the serious studies, which filled five years 
 after the noviciate, Avere calculated, in conjunc- 
 tion 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 stu- 
 dies in every college, the excellent documents 
 prescribed in the institute for masters. 
 
 It is not possible in a short compass to enu- 
 merate these instructions ; but the mention of 
 a few may suffice to prove, that nothing was 
 forgotten. The o'/iect 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. Do- 
 cility is the first virtue required in a child : and, 
 to subdue stiff tempers, the remedies prescribed 
 in the Jesuits' institute are, impartiality in the 
 
igG OF THE ORDER 
 
 master, honourable distinctions, and mortify* 
 ing humiliations, applied with judgment and 
 discretion : then, steady attention to maintain 
 the established discipline and economy oif'^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 dis- 
 grace 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 in- 
 spires mistrust. The art of dissembling small 
 faults is often a safe means to prevent great 
 ones. Gentle means must always be first em- 
 ployed ; and, if ever fear and repentance must 
 be impressed, the hand of some indifferent per- 
 son 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 instruc-- 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 197 
 
 tion, exhortation, friendly reproach, but never 
 contumelious language, haughtiness, and af- 
 fronts : 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 mas- 
 ters, 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 in- 
 difference, 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 bri- 
 
1^8 OF THE ORDER 
 
 dling 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 wdth 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 scignce 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 
 liis disciples. The institute directed him to 
 instil a profound respect for God ; to begin 
 and end his lessons by prayer ; to cherish the 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 199 
 
 piety of the devout ; to avail himself of it as a 
 means to attract the thoughtless to imitation ; 
 and, hy a special rule^ he was charged to in- 
 struct his scholars in all duties of religion hy 
 weekly catechisms, carefully adapted to their 
 capacity. The ecclesiastical historian, Fleury, 
 remarks, in the preface to his historical cate- 
 chism, that, if the youth of his age was incom- 
 parahly 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 educa- 
 tion in Clermont college. 
 
 Ignatius places herein the capital point of 
 education : and he well knew, that where the 
 gKand motives of religion are not employed, 
 Sn assembly of men will commonly be a collec- 
 tion of vice, especially in unexperienced youth, 
 when growing passions always seek communi- 
 cation, in order to authorise themselves by ex- 
 ample. To this point, then, he directs the 
 rules of his subjects employed in education ; to 
 
200 OF THE ORDER 
 
 this he calls the attention of every professor, 
 the vigilance of every prefect of studies, of every 
 master, the solicitude of every rector, the in- 
 spection 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 pas- 
 sions 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 appella- 
 tions of dignity, those titles of emperor and pne^ 
 tor, 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, pro- 
 voked, and defied each other, in classical duels, 
 or in general trials of skill, each whetting his 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 201 
 
 memory on the edge of that of his rival ; and 
 then would often flow those precious tears of 
 emulation, which watered rising genius, ex- 
 panding it to fertility. Hence, again, are pre^ 
 scribed 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, 
 leally 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 imagina- 
 tions ; 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 
 
 2 D 
 
202 OF THE ORDER 
 
 college. It is, again, the master's particular 
 duty to form the manners of his pupils to de- 
 cency, 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 con- 
 comitants, geography, chronology, and mytho- 
 logy ; 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 succeed- 
 ing study of philosophy and mathematics ; and 
 these, in their turn, are the preparation for the 
 deeper discussions of theology, which lifts the 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 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 con- 
 vince 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 
 pcedagogicam quod attlnet, brevissimum foret 
 dictu, Conside scholas Jesuit arum ^ , 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. 
 
 * Pe dign. et aug. Scient. L 7. 
 
204 OF THE ORDER 
 
 But the founder of the Jesuits is not satisfied 
 with siiL'gesting 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 confi- 
 dence 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 
 itquired to yield continual service to persons, 
 from whom they must receive none ; they must 
 impart virtue and knowledge, but never sell 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 205 
 
 either; they must inspire gratitude, and never 
 profit by it; they must prove themselves de- 
 serving of every thing, and accept nothing*. 
 
 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 
 
 * 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 func- 
 tions, 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. 
 
206 OF THE ORDER 
 
 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 through- 
 out a large kingdom, a body of men, well com- 
 pacted 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 
 thoso of the society ; but these men were seldom 
 found, except in the first chairs of great uni- 
 versities ; they did not diffuse learning through- 
 out 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 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 20^ 
 
 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 or THE ORDER 
 
 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 Uteraires ; 
 always dreaded by men of letters, as the prin- 
 cipal source and focus of public opinion in the 
 capital */' 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 pre- 
 scribed 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 f. 
 
 If the outlines of education, which have been 
 
 * Cardinal de Maury's " Elogc de M. I'Abbe Radon- 
 Tilliers, prononce le 7 Mai, 1807.'' 
 
 t See cardinal de Maury's " Essai sur I'Eloquence, 
 Panegyriques, Eloges, &c." vol. ii, printed at Paris^ 
 1810. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 209 
 
 here traced from the book of the Jesuits' insti- 
 tute =^^ 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 adven- 
 turers in the art of training youth daily obtrude 
 upon the public. The Jesuits' system is recom* 
 mended 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 prin-* 
 cipies, on which it rests, even the practical de- 
 tails of it, with little variation, pervaded the edu- 
 cation of the catholic clergy in all distinguished 
 seminaries, whether directed by Jesuits or by 
 others ; and they may, therefore, be regarded as 
 
 * 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, 
 
 2 £ 
 
i^lO OF THE ORDER 
 
 the source of all the virtue and learning which 
 adorned the cathoMc 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 be- 
 cause their schools were widely diffused through 
 Europe, and were marked by them as hotbeds 
 of every thing which they chose to term fana- 
 ticism, 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 ex- 
 pected 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 honum, 
 jacobinism. They had before them the Monita 
 Sacreta and the Institute, and they chose th^ 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 211 
 
 former for the basis of their constitutions. F 
 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 Avrote, but likewise all the papal 
 
212 OF THE ORDER 
 
 bulls and briefs granted to the society ; all the 
 decrees and canons of the several congregations, 
 which form laws in the society ; several instruc- 
 tions, precepts, and ordinations, issued by dif- 
 ferent generals, and adopted by general con- 
 gregations, for universal practice ; the general 
 Ratio Studioriim ; 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 candi- 
 dates for admittance; Constitutiones Societatis 
 Jesu ; an epistle De Virtute Obedientice ; a 
 book of Spiritual Exercises ; and, finally, many 
 of the jtaiticular rules of offices. The Prague 
 edition of the Institute, anno 17^7? 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 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 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 ap- 
 propriate rules of union, discipline, reputation, 
 freedom from party, and moderation *. 
 
 Such is the code which has been so misrepre- 
 sented. 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 
 
 * See the chapter of part x, entitled " De modo quo 
 conservari et augeri totum corpus Societatis in suo bono 
 statu possit," vol. i, p. 44.5, of the Prague folio edition. 
 
214 OF THE ORDER 
 
 are so many adopted prejudices, the refutation 
 of which is completely given in the Apohgie de 
 timtitut, 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 unre- 
 sisting as a dead body, or as tractable as a stick 
 in the hands of an old man ! *." 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 commis^ 
 aion of a crime, but in duties known to be piouA 
 
 * Institute^ vol. ii, p. 408, Prague folio editioiK 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 215 
 
 and moral, in actions evidently laudable. Kor 
 is the expression of the text cccca obedientia, but 
 c^ca quadatn obediential. The rule is for the 
 better training of the young and the inex- 
 perienced ; 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 con- 
 formable to justice and to charity ; omnibus in 
 rebus ad quas potest cum charitate se obedientia 
 extendere f . 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 quiC a superiore disponuntur ubi defi- 
 niri non possit (quemadmodum dictum est) ali- 
 quod peccati genus inter cedere%. In a word, 
 discussion is not forbidden by the institute, but 
 in cases where it is evident that there is no sin ; 
 
 ^^ Institute, vol, ii, p. 408, Prague folio edition. 
 t Ibid. vol. i, p. 407. 
 % lipid, vol. i, p. 40S. 
 
2l6 OF THE ORDER 
 
 nbi non cernerefur peccatum ^ ; a doctrine con- 
 tinually repeated on this head, quemadmodum 
 dictum est, that is, in qidbus nullum manifestum 
 est peccatum-\. 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 or- 
 dinary superiors. It flows from the same source, 
 and tends to the same end. Having demon- 
 strated the slavery of it to be a chimera, the 
 despotism of the general naturally vanishes with 
 
 * Institute, vol. i, p. ^73. 
 i Ibid, vol. i, p. 408. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 217 
 
 it. The nature of tlie society required, that it 
 should be under a siugle 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 salva^ 
 lion ; but one, whose members were to be 
 spread over the whole world, to promote the 
 glory of God and the good of man. The in- 
 stitute, 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^ ; mildness is the sceptre it be- 
 stows upon him, and charity the throne-f-; it 
 
 * " Flliis suis, ut convenit, compati noverit.'* — Insti* 
 tutum Const., Pars IX, vol. ii, c. i, p. 4. 
 
 *' Conferet secum viros, qui consilio polleant, habere^ 
 quorum opera in iis quse statuenda sunt . , , uti possit/'— • 
 Ibid., vol. i, p. 425. 
 
 t " Vir sit (generalis) ... in omni virtutum genere eX- 
 2 F 
 
218 OF THE ORDER 
 
 equally prohibits the superior to govern by vio- 
 lence and the inferior to obey through fear*. 
 The general is elected by the whole society, vrho 
 first swear to choose only hiin, whom they be- 
 lieve to be the most worthy of the office ^, There 
 is nothing arbitrary or changeable in the au- 
 
 emplum . . . ac prcBcipue 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. 376'. 
 
 * " Conferet etiam, circumspecte et ordinate precipserc 
 . . . ita \\t subditi se potius ad dilectionem majorem quam ad 
 timorem suorum superiorem possint componere." -r- Ibid., 
 vol. h p. 426. 
 
 " Ut in spiritu anions et non cum perturbatione timori*^ 
 procedatur, curandum est."' — Ibid., vol, i, p. 407. 
 
 f " Juret unusquisque, priusquam det [suffragium) quod 
 €um nominat, quern sentit in Domino magis idoneum." — 
 Ibid., vol. i, p. 431. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 219 
 
 thoiity 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 =*. 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'}-. In spiritual affairs, the general is sub- 
 ject to the pOpe ; in temporal matters, to the go- 
 vernment under which he lives ; and^ in what 
 
 * " Si accidiret utvalde negligensvel remissus esset, &c. 
 . . . tunc enim coadjutor vel vicarius qui generalis officio 
 fungatur, est eligendus/' — Institutum Const., vol. , p. 439. 
 
 f " Habet ergo societas cum prseposito generali (et idem 
 cum inferioribub fieri possit) aliquem qui accedens ad Deum 
 in oratione, postquam divinam bonitatem consulerit et 
 aequum esse id judicaverit, cum mod,estia debita ac bumili- 
 tate, quid sentiat in ipso prseposito requiri ad majus obscr 
 quiumetgloriamDei, admonere teneatur.^' — Ibid., ParsIX^ 
 c. h, n. 4, p. 439. 
 
220 OF THE ORDER 
 
 concerns himself personally, or the society 
 solely, to a general meeting of the order'*. 
 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 -f-. 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 
 condenms ambition in individuals, and still 
 more strongly in the general J. ' One great 
 
 * See Part iX, chap, iv, of the Constitutions, entitled 
 " Be auctoritate vel providentia quam Societas habere 
 debet erga praepositmn Generalem/' vol i^, p. 439. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 "l " Erit etiam summi momenti, ut perpetuo felix socie- 
 tatis status conservetur, di'igentissiuie ambitionem, malo- 
 rum omnium in quavi^ lepnblica vel congregatione matrem 
 submovere." — instituium Const., vol. i, p. 446. 
 
 " Qui rutem de ambitione hujusmodi convictus esset, ac- 
 tivo et pa sivo suftVagio privetur, ut inhabilis ad eligendum 
 alium (generalem), et ut ipse eligatur.^^ — Ibid., vol. i, 
 p. 430. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 221 
 
 charije against the power of the general is, that 
 bis authority may injure that of sovereigns, by 
 withdrawing their subjects from their obedience: 
 on the contrary, he is expressly forbidden, b^ 
 the institute, to take from a state any Jesuit 
 whatever, without the knowledge of the so- 
 vereign ^', The annulling of contracts is an- 
 other source of abuse, founded on a mistaken 
 passage in the institute, where it is said ; ^' A1-- 
 though the general, by his open letters to par- 
 ticular 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 re- 
 lates 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 main- 
 tains spies everywhere, for the purpose of div- 
 ing into the secrets of courts, and into the 
 
 * Institutum Const,, vol. i, p. 490. 
 
222 OF THE ORDER 
 
 affairs of private families. The institute con- 
 tains a rule directly the reverse of this assertion, 
 a rule by which he is expressly prohibited from 
 meddiiiig in aiHiirs that do not concern the 
 society, even under any pretext of piety or 
 religion** 
 
 After all, then, the general of tlie 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 ac- 
 count 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, 
 vshould believe, that they are obliged, by virtue 
 of that A^ery institute, to commit the greatest 
 sins man is capable of; and it is absurd to sup-r 
 
 * Institutum Const., vol. i, p. 422. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 223 
 
 pose, 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 pubMc curiosity to inquire into 
 their history, this chapter shall be closed with 
 a brief accou.it of the final catastrophe of that 
 small portion of their bodv, which for two 
 
224 OF THE ORDER 
 
 hundred years was connected with England^ 
 by the common bonds of country, hmguage, 
 and blood. 
 
 About the year 1590, the English Jesuits ob- 
 tained, 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, tl>ey ac- 
 quired 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 176*2, the two first-mentioned of these esta- 
 blishments were subjected to confiscation by the 
 unsparing arrets gf 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, with-^ 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 225 
 
 out the smallest allowance for their support, 
 or even for their return to their native soil. 
 They presented themselves to the Austrian go- 
 vernment 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 destruc- 
 tive 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, with- 
 out any allowance for their personal subsistence. 
 In this utter distress, a ^qw of these persecuted 
 men, who remained at Liege, not quite dispirited 
 by their calamities, were encouraged by the prince 
 
 2 G 
 
226 OF THE ORDER 
 
 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 in- 
 dustry 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 
 Avas to be their doom. In 1794, when the 
 French armies, by one general sweep, over- 
 turned, 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 w^ere con- 
 verted into wadding for the cannon ; their ma- 
 thematical 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. 
 
AND THE INSTITUTE. 22^ 
 
 comforting their old age with the late public 
 testimony of the head of the church, th it they 
 deserved a better fate. Having availed them- 
 selves of the indulgence of the British govern- 
 ment, 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 misrepresenta- 
 tion and slander. They have pledged their 
 allegiance to their king and country, in the com- 
 prehensive 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 OF THE ORDER AND INSTITUTE. 
 
 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. 
 
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 re- 
 flect 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 ma- 
 lignity with which they carried on their unjust 
 persecutions of the society, and to expose the 
 
230 POMBAL. 
 
 causes of their conduct ; but, in the mention 
 which has occasionally been made of the Portu- 
 guese 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 Mala- 
 grida. 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 Vi- 
 enna, and, afterwards, to his successor, Jo- 
 seph 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 ex- 
 change of lands and fixing new boundaries in 
 South America, the motive of which we have 
 
ali^eady 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 j)roject and attempt to 
 usurp the dominion of South America, which;, 
 with great industry and many foul arts, he pro- 
 pagated 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 
 kings brother, don Pedro, who w^as 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 mar- 
 riage. He strove to inspire the king with jea- 
 lousy 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 I^OMBAL. 
 
 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 ot 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 out* 
 rage and slavery, yet it was always a difficult 
 struggle. Pombal had made his brother, who 
 w^as 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, Ma- 
 riana of Austria, greatly favoured the missions. 
 When any Jesuits sailed for Brazil, she regularly 
 exhorted them to attend seriously to the propa- 
 gation of religion, and directed them to inform 
 
POM6AL. 233 
 
 her exactly of whatever obstacles they might ex- 
 perience from the king's officers, and the Por- 
 tuguese settlers, promising redress for their in- 
 juries and concealment of their names. In full 
 confidence of her protection the missionaries 
 often ])referred serious complaints against 
 Xavier Mendoza, and the wrongs of the poor 
 Indians w^ere frequently redressed. The minis- 
 ter'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 pa- 
 pers, and discovered the channel of intelligence. 
 His increased rage against the missionaries and 
 Jesuits in general may be imagined. The con- 
 duct of the Jesuits, after the earthquake in 17^5, 
 afforded him fresh grounds of enmity. They 
 spread themselves through the city and the 
 adjacent country, everywhere inviting the peo- 
 ple to repentance. Their sermons were every- 
 where attended by multitudes, their confessionals 
 ^vere thronged. Penitential processions were 
 instituted^ the city was edified. In their dis- 
 
 2 H 
 
234 POMBAL. 
 
 courses, 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 particu- 
 lar, 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 dis- 
 course on the subject of the earthquake, which 
 was read and highly commended by the king. 
 His majesty had signified his intention of mak- 
 ing 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 with- 
 drawn, a public sedition would ensue. The 
 
POMBAL. 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 mi- 
 nister, 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 Pomhal ; in Anecdotes da Minis- 
 tere du Marquis de Pomhal; and in various other 
 
236 
 
 POMBAL. 
 
 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 onlv 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 abus- 
 ing the confidence and authority of a good king, 
 could, for the s])ace of twenty years, silence 
 every tongue, close every month, shut up every 
 heart, hold truth captive, lead falsehood in 
 triuiiij^h, elFace every trace of justice, force re- 
 spec t to be paid to iniquity and barbarity, and 
 enslave public opinion from one end of Europe 
 to tbe other?" Such was Sebastian Joseph Car- 
 valho, 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. 
 
PHILOSOPHERS. 23^ 
 
 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 em- 
 bellishers of the modern school of reason, could 
 not endure men, who preached doctrines and 
 maintained principles so opposite to their own 
 jiew-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 systenx 
 of the education of the Jesuits turned. Deum 
 iimetey regem honorificatey '' 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 irre- 
 ligion ; where God, his mysteries and his laws, 
 were cited to the tribunal of proud and depraved 
 
238 PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 reason ; where it was a rule to reject what was 
 not comprehended, to ridicule whatever checked 
 and restrained youthful passions, to hegin 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 li- 
 bertinism and dissoluteness, which soiled the ima- 
 gination by the most obscene productions, and cor- 
 rupted 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 tiiiths ; 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*. Je- 
 
 * When Dr. Priestley went to Paris, to enjoy personally 
 the happy improvement of human affairs, at the conclusion 
 ot the eighteenth century, the glorious star of reason was 
 
PHILOSOPHERS. 239 
 
 suits 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 philo- 
 
 culminatlng. He was known to be a materialist, conse- 
 quently 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 distin- 
 guished 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. Co?u- 
 ment! croit-il V immortalite de Vame? Point de tout; il 
 convient que Vhomme n'a point d'ame. Bien ! que croit-il 
 done ? II croit, V immortalite du corp. Sue diahle ! quelle 
 hizarerie! Mais, chez docteur, expliquez nous cela. The 
 doctor discoursed on master, and necessity, and of Jesuv 
 Christ as a mere man. Finding that he believed somethltig 
 their astonishment was great ; and, for soaie time, /> docttvr 
 croit was a bve-word. 
 
240 PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 sophy 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 acknow- 
 ledged 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 accepta- 
 tion of the term ; that is, while they inculcated 
 respect for divine revelation, and for established 
 authority, they never ceased, during two hun- 
 dred years, to furnish a succession of professors, 
 who unfolded the principles of natural and of 
 moral knowledge. And what branch of human 
 
PHILOSOPHERS. 241 
 
 science was banished from their schools ? Their 
 public lessons might be called elementary by 
 deep proficients ; but they were accommo(hited. 
 to the capacity of the bulk of their youthful 
 auditors ; their object was to awaken in them 
 tlie love of science, to lay the foundation on 
 which tlie edifice oF deep knowledge was after- 
 "Wards 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, oi, 
 as it was miscalled, their credulity. They 
 believed sublime truths, that surpassed com- 
 prehension, because they feared God, who at- 
 tests them, and knew that he cannot deceive. 
 
 2 I 
 
242 PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 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 emi- 
 nence in these justly confers the title of philo- 
 sopher^ 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 te- 
 dious to rehearse the multitude of names, which 
 might be adduced ; but I must observe, that 
 the succession of them was never discontinued j 
 and that, in the very last state of the society, 
 there were men among them revered and con- 
 sulted by the most eminent professors and acade- 
 micians, who disdained to be mere disciples of 
 Voltaire and D'Alembert. The best mathemati- 
 cians 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, 
 
PHILOSOPHERS. 243 
 
 Xiaienes^ 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 
 caltivated. The celebrated M. La Lande, and 
 our own astronomer, Dr. Maskeiyne, did not 
 disdain his correspondence. La Lande. in par- 
 ticular, in his writings, mentions these Jesuit 
 philosophers with honour. 
 
 It is the remark of M. Chateaubriand =^, 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 know- 
 ledge. Their reputation, in this point of view, 
 contributed much to the esteem in wliicli the 
 society w^as formerly held, before the strange 
 concurrence of causes, which has not been 
 hitherto explained, had operated upon the 
 
 ^ Genie du Christianisme, torn, viii. 
 
244 RELIGION NECESSARY 
 
 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 con- 
 viction, 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 re- 
 ligious motives ; and that morality, with all 
 its beauty, to be valuable, must originate in 
 
IN EDUCATION. 245 
 
 that source. Let even temperate philosophers 
 say what they will of morality, independent of 
 religion, there is one 6trikin:4: advantage to 
 states ari«;ingfrom the hitter, which the former 
 cannot vield. Contentment and resianation are 
 the fruits of religion; insulated morality gene- 
 rates discontent, and has a perpetual tendency 
 to douht the justice of the inequality of con- 
 ditions 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 mo- 
 rality. Saum cuiqiie tribuitur is a maxim of 
 confined morality ; the refined moralist is a cos- 
 mopolite ; and, still more refined, he denies the 
 rights of meuni 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 beau- 
 tiful morality which binds him in social order. 
 
246 RELIGION NECESSARY 
 
 which gives to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and, 
 in securing to every man the rights he has ob- 
 tained 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 in- 
 congruous systems, and excite religious dis- 
 sentions. 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 
 
IN EDUCATION. 247 
 
 from the means of it ; that the rudiments of in- 
 strnction should be devoted solely to the acqui- 
 sition of worldly arts, of which the operation 
 is to be left to the direction of ignorance and 
 selfishness. It is astonishing, with the expe- 
 rience 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 revolu- 
 tion to the deistical and atheistical philosophers, 
 I do not hesitate to attribute the long continua- 
 tion of it to the change that took place in the 
 forms of education ; to the universities of Buo- 
 naparte*, to the confining of men's interests to 
 
 * 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 whicli 
 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 cor- 
 nered hats. 
 
248 RELIGION NECESSARY 
 
 tlie duration of life. In this country, there is 
 a system in full operation, and patroirized 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 reason- 
 ing 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 1/88 and 1789- This 
 opinion cannot be mistaken for one of intole- 
 rance. I think it would have been happier had 
 the wbole nation been of one accord in every 
 point of religion ; and I see, in the church of 
 England, sufficient inducements to have re- 
 strained mincis, sensible of the danger of innova- 
 tion, from making a few points of mysterious 
 doctrines a plea for separating from her ; bat 
 while I say this, I am far from thinking that 
 men should be compelled into modes of worship, 
 
IN EDUCATION. 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 re- 
 ligious instruction ; for they must prove semina- 
 ries 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 improve- 
 ment 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 
 
 2 K 
 
250 RELIGION NECESSARY 
 
 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 in- 
 struments : to render them a blessing the soul 
 must be fashioned into a spring of thought and 
 action j and it behoves the fashioner to temper 
 it justly. How desirable soever it might be, that 
 the rising generation, enjoying the same con- 
 stitution, should be united in the same mode of 
 worship, yet, as that blossing 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, 
 
IN EDUCATION. 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 re- 
 solve to avert it by the establishment of schools 
 w^here 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 him- 
 self, 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 
 
253 RELIGION NECESSARY 
 
 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 
 sensilde, 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 de- 
 monstrations, are not intended to deceive us in 
 any one point, and the resurrection of our Sa- 
 viour becomes sooner solved than the precession 
 of the equinox. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate the advan- 
 
IN EDUCATION. 253 
 
 tages arising to our fellow creatures and to so- 
 ciety from Dr. Bell's system of edacation for the 
 poor, without delight and without grateful 
 feelings to the author, and, I may add, the still 
 active director of it. Thousands upon thou- 
 sands will bless him, while he yet lives, and a 
 perpetual series of millions will revere his me- 
 mory after he shall have joined the myriads of 
 spirits from whom he shall himself learn the 
 .celestial allelnjahs^ 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, accord- 
 ing 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 super- 
 
254 RELIGION NECESSARY 
 
 intended 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, na 
 inference can be drawn, that the temporal in- 
 terests and rights of mankind are to be neg- 
 lected. Man, born to sorrow, having but a 
 short time to live, is assuredly more concerned 
 in securing an eternal than a temporal happi- 
 ness ; 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 afflic- 
 tions must be borne, but that government is the 
 best imagined, and the most wisely administered. 
 
IN EDUCATION. 1255 
 
 by which the large mass of the people are en- 
 abled 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 go- 
 vernment 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 ? 
 
25G RELIGION NECESSARY 
 
 They can be such only as have a sunilaritj^ of 
 spirit and of views to those of the former ene* 
 mies of the society (sir John Hippisley never- 
 theless excej ted, whose alarm must have a very 
 diiferent spring) ; men, who have already dared 
 to warn the clergy of England against institut- 
 ing schools, in which children are to be in- 
 stnicted in the national religion, because of the 
 hostile feelings which will be excited between 
 them and the children of the anti-church insti- 
 tutions'*; Jacobinical philosophers, materialists, 
 votaries of reason and eternal sleep, and, per-* 
 haps, 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 : '' igno- 
 rance," said Henry IV^, in his speech to Harlay 
 before cited, " has always borne a grudge to 
 learning." I trust, however, and believe, that I 
 
 * A writer in the Times, cited in the Quarterly Heview 
 of Oct. 1811, p. 302. 
 
IN EDUCATION. 25? 
 
 have proved enough to convince the reader, that 
 the Jesuits have been cahnnniated ; that their 
 debtriiction 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 thev are not at war with 
 protestant governments, whose catholic subjects 
 they are well know n 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. 
 
 2 L 
 
THE 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 O F 
 
 CLERICUS 
 
 Calumniare audacter; semper aliquid adhaereLit, 
 
THE 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 OP 
 
 C1.ERICUS TO LAICUS 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Jesuit ct, qui se maxime nobis opponunt, aut necandi, aut si 
 hoc co?n?node fieri non potest, ejiciendi, aut certe mendaciis et 
 calumniis opptimendi sunt. — Calv. Axiom. — Vide Becan. 
 torn, i, opusc. xvii, aphor. 15 *. 
 
 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 
 
 * The Jansenistical apostate monk, Le Courayer, alleges 
 a powerful motive to enforce this doctrine : it is this; " By 
 
262 LETTERS OF 
 
 of moderate information knows, that to accom- 
 plish 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 ugo, wdien 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 w^as, 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 calkd forth to sustain the assaults 
 of calumny. But what inept calumny, what 
 
 destroying the credit and reputation of the Jesuits, Rome must 
 be subverted : and when this is once effected, "Religion will 
 reform itself." — Hist, du Cone, de Tixnte, ed. d' Amsterdam, 
 1731, p. 03. 
 
CLERICUS. 263 
 
 falsehoods, what inconsistencies, what contra- 
 dictions, have you, Laicus, raked together, 
 to stifle the new life, which they are only begin- 
 Bing 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 coun- 
 tries ; 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 co- 
 lumns in the Times, newspaper, of January the 
 27th. They will not support either themselves, 
 or the credit of the publication which has re- 
 ceived 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 LETTERS OF 
 
 from the light ? But, alas 1 Omnis, qui male 
 agity 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 undiscriminatiiig 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 remem- 
 ber, 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 hill found the profligacy of Titus 
 Gates quite sufficient to raise an enormous fer- 
 ment throughout the nation, and to procure the 
 legal murder of twenty harmless Jesuits, gentle- 
 men and priests. You distinctly disclaim the 
 
CLEUICUS. 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 Ta- 
 nuccis, the Caunitzes, the Spinellis, the Mare- 
 foschis, &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 Requlsitoires, Comptes Rendus, and 
 Arrets of the French parliaments, from which 
 I traced it to the Jansenists, to the Calvinists, 
 to the Tuba Mag7ia^ 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 
 
 2 M 
 
266 LETTERS OF 
 
 the most malicious. It sball 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 tlieir leading men lament it, 
 and some of them fairly acknowledge the infamy 
 of the slander^ which their courts had employed 
 to effect it. II 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 magis- 
 trates ; 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. 
 
CLERICUS. 267 
 
 that they governed the consciences of all mo- 
 narchs^ 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 coun- 
 tries 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 refuta- 
 tion of your fable would be, a comparison of 
 the state of religion, morality, order, and sub- 
 ordination 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 de- 
 struction. 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 LETTERS OF 
 
 proved against a single Jesuit ; not one was ever 
 interrogated or suffered to plead his cause. 
 Horrid to tell ! they were all everywhere con- 
 demned^ everywhere punished unheard, untried. 
 This is a fact of public notoriety*. 
 
 It is curious to observe, how your accusa- 
 tions 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 em- 
 ployed, nor trusted, nor even persecuted. An- 
 
 * That the ministers Pombalj Choiseul, Aranda, Tanucci, 
 &c. should have adopted this summary mode of execution 
 at Lisbon, Paris, Madrid, Naples, &c. creates now littl« 
 surprise, devoted as th*:y were to the views of the philo- 
 sophers. 
 
CLERICUS. 269 
 
 other 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 in- 
 dividual =^. But who cannot see, that this ad- 
 
 * It will be readily allowed, that the form of limited 
 monarchy is best calculated to insure the happiness of sub- 
 jects. 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 go- 
 Ternment 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 en- 
 raged. They were reduced to assassinate the body, which 
 they could not decompose. In every country, they em- 
 ployed merciless soldiers, and still more unfeeling law- 
 yers, 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 ? 
 
270 LETTERS OF 
 
 mitted fact stands in direct contradiction to that 
 other crimination, where you execrate their go- 
 vernment, as perfect and unexampled despotism 9 
 It is not possible, that a large body of well edu- 
 cated 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 5'onr 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 seven- 
 teenth 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 asser- 
 tion in Italics, that the Jesuits had obtained from 
 
CLERICUS. 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 be- 
 longed 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 ab- 
 normous, 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, uutil you produce. un- 
 
273 LETTERS or 
 
 deniable proofs that the Jesuits were concerned 
 in the intrigues, which produced the several re- 
 volutions 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 revo- 
 lution, which wrested the American States 
 from the British crown. I will rub off the 
 splendide menda.v from your forehead when 
 you prove, that any one of these revolu- 
 tions 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. Daring the reigns of Philip II, and 
 his three immediate successors in Spain ; during 
 the reigns of Maximilian, of the three Ferdi- 
 nands, and Leopold, in Germany ; during the 
 ireigns of Henry IV, and of the three Louises, who 
 succeeded him, in France, the Jesuits obtained 
 their most distinguished settlements in those va- 
 rious kingdoms. If ever a history of the de- 
 
CLERICUS. 273 
 
 struction of the Jesuits be written, it will show, 
 that, purposely to bring forward the grand revolu- 
 tion, from which Europe is now struggling to re* 
 cover, 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 cantaheris urbc, 
 
 HoR. Sat. i, 1. 2, 
 
 Mean time your antagonist is 
 
 CLERICUa 
 
 2 N 
 
3/4 LETTERS OF 
 
 LETTER 11. 
 
 SIR; 
 
 IN my last, I engaged myself to say a 
 word on your Blonita Secreta, This rancid 
 libel, indeed, refutes itself. No man of com- 
 mon sense will allow even the possibility of a 
 large body of men being governed, or of at- 
 taining credit and power by such absurd 
 maxims, under the inspection of so many power- 
 ful 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 
 
CLERICUS, 275 
 
 year. And the contriver of theinj 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 dis- 
 tinguished 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 assem- 
 bly; 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 car- 
 dinal, with which the pope offered to distinguish 
 his eminent merit ; and, that he ended his ca- 
 reer in 1565, seven years after he had been 
 elected general of the young society. Now, say, 
 what time could a man so busied in theo- 
 logical and missionary labours in Italy and 
 France, command to conduct commercial spe- 
 
2^6 LETTERS OF 
 
 culations in India^ as you in your odious libel 
 assert r 
 
 But alas, why should Laicus spare Laines, 
 when he has dared to blaspheme the great^ the 
 renowned Francis Xavier, as a monster of cru- 
 elty, as an extortioner of Indian wealth ? As if 
 such senseless insult, at the distance of two hun- 
 dred and sixty years, could disparage the re- 
 vered merit, or obliterate the tribute of admira- 
 tion 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 Dry- 
 den. — See p. 766, 7^7' 
 
 The maxims of Xavier and Laines, consigned 
 in your Monica Secreta, were first brought to 
 light, you tell us, at the close of the seventeenth 
 century, about one hundred and forty years aftei* 
 the decease of the supposed author; and yet you 
 have not a shadow of pi'oof to allege, that they 
 
CLERICUS. 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 Monlta ? 
 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 circum- 
 stance 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 pub- 
 lished 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, id modeste dlcam, 
 nihil ineptius.'' — Vid. Cordara, Hist. Soc. Jes. 
 page 29. Cordara would have made an excep- 
 tion in favour of Laicus, if he had lived to read 
 
27S LETTERS OF 
 
 his Letters in the Times. The h'bel^ however, 
 though condemned and prohibited at Rome by 
 the Congregation of the Index on the 10th 
 of May, l6l6, 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 Ratis- 
 bon, 1634*. 
 
 * After some search I have discovered, that Jerom 
 Zarowicz, or Zarowich, was the name of the discharged 
 Poiish Jesuit, who forged and published the Monita Secreta 
 in I616. Subsequent editions, as might be expected, were 
 swelled with fresh matter. Henry a Sancto Ignatio, a Fle- 
 mish 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 Q,uesnel was condemned by the famoui 
 bull Unigenitus. 
 
 While the minister Pombal was persecuting the Jesuits in 
 Portugal, Almada, his agent at Rome, filled that capital 
 
CLERICUS. 2/9 
 
 Laicus affirms^ that an edition of the 3Iomtaw?LS 
 dedicated to sir Robert Walpole in 1/2 2. 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 
 
 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 Cle- 
 ment 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 thajt 
 eminent adept in the stile basso e andante , Laicus of the 
 Times. 
 
280 LETTERS OF 
 
 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 Je- 
 suit 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, se- 
 veral angry libels and invectives were indus- 
 triously circulated, purposely to indispose the 
 public against them ; and it is observable, that 
 the same jealousy and party rancour had influ- 
 enced the negotiations instituted in favour of 
 catholics in the reign of Charles II, and evea 
 during the usurpation of Cromwell. The edi- 
 tion of Laicus's cherished libel, in 1/22, if it be a 
 reality, was probably published on the same prin- 
 ciples ; and this reflection will soon lead me to 
 detect the ultimate view of Laicus and his asso- 
 ciates in the present effusions of slander, which 
 they are scattering abroad. This point may 
 be reserved for future examination. 
 
CLERICUS. 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 
 Monifa. 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 WTitten upon it in the 
 Institute, stands directly in contradiction to 
 your description of it in your second Letter. It 
 w^as 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, overswaj^ed 
 and disobeyed, and sometimes murdered by 
 Jesuits. What idiots these popes must have 
 been ! In what chapter of the Institute did 
 2 O 
 
 ^ 
 
282 LETTERS OF 
 
 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 pro- 
 testants and their own aggrandisement, you 
 allow to have been at all times the main object 
 of Jesuits ? Who can believe, that protest ant 
 Jesuits would ever have submitted to persecute 
 protestants ? Who can imagine unanimity of 
 mind, heart, and action among men, who dis- 
 agreed 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 disco- 
 very of sucli a crime should have been reserved 
 for Laicus, ninety-one years after the death of 
 that pontift'*! Who, before Laicus, ever wrote, 
 
 * 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 mimito popido of Italy, that the 
 
CLERICUS. 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 con- 
 versant in the history of France ever doubted 
 of the civil wars of the sixteenth century 
 having originated with the rebellious Hugo- 
 nots ; but no man before Laicus ever attri- 
 buted all the horrors of that dismal period 
 to Jesuits. The famous league opposed the 
 succession of the Bourbons in the person of 
 
 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 ndnuto populo. Laicus catches the 
 ray, and reflects it, with lustre improved, upon our ininuto 
 populo, when he assures them, that Innocent XIII was 
 UNIVERSALLY UNDEHSTOOD to kave hetu murdercd by the Jesuits. 
 Such is the progress of genius. 
 
284 LETTERS OF 
 
 Henry IV; and the whole guilt of their pro- 
 ceedings 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 ; be- 
 cause 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 em- 
 press 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 
 Yows. How a Frenchman must scout such 
 ribaldry ! But enough of these extravagancies. 
 
CLERICUS. 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, 
 thj^t Laicus and his prompters do not rave 
 merely for sport. Their real views will gradu- 
 ally appear : they are not quite unknown to 
 
 CLERICUS. 
 
:2S6 LETTERS OP 
 
 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 evi- 
 dence 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 sha- 
 dow of proof, that your rants were ever be- 
 lieved by any man before yourself. The only 
 authority cited in it is of one Collado, who as- 
 serted, that the conduct of the Jesuits was the 
 occasion of the abolition of Christianity in Ja- 
 pan ; but whoever has read the history of 
 
CLERICUS. 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 uncon- 
 nected congeries of the grossest impostures. In 
 my second I marked out a few; I shall presently 
 indicate some others ; and I shall leave my read- 
 ers 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 guilty 
 even against the worst of culprits, solely 
 upon the asseverations of their declared ene- 
 mies ; and, if these enemies stand otherwise 
 convicted of malicious calumnies, this circum- 
 stance alone must go far towards the acquit- 
 tal of the accused. Now, it is well known, 
 
288 LETTERS OF 
 
 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 Avere to be imputed to Jesuits, and 
 especially to Cuneus, the pope's nuncio, and car- 
 dinal Barberini (who, by the way, never were Je- 
 suits), we must also believe every thing vrritten 
 by that foul mouthed lawyer against Charles I, 
 against episcopacy, and against the famous arch- 
 bishop Laud. But we know, that the fellow's ears 
 were twice bored and cropped in the pillory fof 
 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 un- 
 blushing front of the retailer of his falsehoods. 
 
CLERICUS. 289 
 
 Before I speak of De Thon, 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 prac- 
 tice, the members of the society are bound to 
 obey the society, and not the church*." 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 com- 
 mendation that Institute obtained. 2. " They 
 have invariably opposed episcopacy, and they 
 have repeatedly attacked the decrees of general 
 councils, especially that of Trent*." It should 
 €eem, 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, in- 
 
 * See Letter 11. 
 t Ibid. 
 
 2 P 
 
290 LETTERS OF 
 
 dependent of secular authority, in wliich reJ- 
 fractory members are put to death ; a right 
 which Laines obtained for them =^." Quere, from 
 whom did he obtain it ? From the pope r 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, abbd Raynal, and many 
 others? Poor Laicus cannot answer one of 
 these questions. He has disclaimed all preten- 
 sion to novelty; he is satisfied with copying ma- 
 lignity ; 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, 
 
 * See Letter II. 
 
CLERICUS. 291 
 
 general of the Jesuits^ procured from pope 
 Paul IV the privilege of having prisons inde- 
 pendent of the secular authority, in which 
 they (the Jesuits) put to death refractory breth- 
 ren." 4. " One peculiar object of the society 
 is to direct and aid the operations of the Inqui- 
 sition*." It is not easy to ascertain the pre- 
 cise 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 administra- 
 tion, or proceedings, of the Inquisition. 5. " The 
 Jesuits usurped the sovereignty of Paraguay, 
 and held the Indians in slavery f." This has 
 been a thousand times said ; and it has been as 
 often demonstrated, to the satisfaction of im- 
 partial 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 
 
 * See Letter II. 
 I Ibid. 
 
292 LETTERS OF 
 
 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*." In spite of 
 the prepotency of the cruel minister Pombal, 
 truth has prevailed, and the world remains con^ 
 vinced, 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 f." All this is a blundering confusion 
 of the adventures of the bastard Portuguese 
 prince x\ntonio, prior of Crato, and of the his- 
 tory of king Alfonso, who, a hundred years 
 later, was deposed and confined in the island of 
 Tercera. Whoever has looked into Portuguese 
 
 * See Letter II. 
 t Ibid, 
 
CLERICUS, 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 de- 
 posed the grand duke of Muscovy with great 
 bloodshed, for a creature of their own ^." When 
 did all this happen, and who wa's 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 f." On this 
 
 * See Letter II. 
 t See Letter III. 
 
2^4 LETTERS OF 
 
 point the policy of the Jesuits appears tok 
 have been defective. If they had sent good 
 father Louis XIV to a foreign mission, for in- 
 stance, 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 tq 
 be a submissive subject*. 
 
 I mention two facts more, because they are 
 new — not related by Prjmne, nor even by the 
 
 * Voltaire, in his History of Louis XIV, had the as- 
 surance 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 V 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 ininuto popu(o. 
 
CLERICVS. 295 
 
 learned writer of the historical articles in the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, whose words, in his 
 article " Jesuits," you have so exactly copied 
 into your Lettersf 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 Avhich 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 *." 
 The gross absurdity of this narration is evident 
 without a comment f. The other is still more 
 extraordinary. 11. You invite us to consult 
 *^ the important memorial presented by Parsops 
 the Jesuit, to king James II, for bringing in 
 popery %r This Parsons is a most woii- 
 
 -^ See Letter III. ^ 
 
 t Urban VIII was elected pope in 1G25. I have before 
 
 jne an authentic list of all the superiors of the Jesuits in 
 
 England from 1623 downwards to 1773, in which no name 
 
 like Stillington appears. 
 
 ■ .: See Leiter III. 
 
296 LETTERS OF 
 
 derful 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 w^as 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 novir 
 time to think of De Thou. 
 
 This writer s character is well drawn by the 
 learned professor of Lovain, Dr. Paquot : — Thu- 
 anus audax nimium ; host is Jesuit arum implaca* 
 hilis ; calumniator Guisiorum ; protestantium 
 exscriptor, laudator^ amicus; sedi aposfolicce et 
 
CLERICUS. 297 
 
 synodo Tridentince, totique ret catJiolict^e parum 
 aquus, De Thoa was fully animated with thfe 
 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 thd 
 spiritual authority of the holy see and the 
 bishops. During the active admhiistration of 
 Louis XIV, they were confined to tliisiif proper 
 functions of civil and criminal justice -, but iri 
 the times, which preceded and followed that 
 reigrij they were leaguers, and favourers of the 
 Hug6nots,and abettors of theFrotide, 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 engag- 
 ing : but, as he wrote solely to favour the Hu- 
 gonots, his narrations are compiled only upon 
 their memoirs, or they are sports of his own 
 2 a 
 
298 LETTERS OF 
 
 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 
 w^onderfully fond of detailing conspiracies against 
 princes, and, in these fabulous tales, he com- 
 pletely 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 con- 
 spiracy ; he recites letters, which were never 
 written ; and, most commonly, Jesuits, but some- 
 times Dominicans, even Capuchins, are his prin- 
 cipal actors. These men give anticipated abso- 
 lution 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 sec- 
 taries ; and, with them, the word of De Thou 
 s paramount to demonstrative proof. 
 
CLERICUS. 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 his- 
 torical romances have so much contributed to 
 render religion odious, and to plunge mankind 
 into scepticism and infidelity. 
 
 Having already mentioned the writer of the his- 
 torical and biographical articles in the Encyclo- 
 pedia 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 sup- 
 port each other, and advance the common cause 
 in which they are engaged. How strange it is, 
 that the historian of the Encyclopedia, so Avell 
 informed of whatever concerns Jesuits, should 
 not have known, that Louis XIV was a professed 
 member of that order, bound by four solemn 
 
3Q0 LETTERS OF 
 
 vows; VIZ. of voluntary poverty, perpetual chas- 
 tity, and entire obedience to the general of the 
 society in all things, and likewise to the pop^ 
 
 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, whicph had escaped all the writers 
 of that royal Jesuit's life, is consigned to poste- 
 rity 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 J" The circulation of this fact by 
 Laicus, would at one stroke ha\e crushed the 
 Jesuits, and would have conciliated immortal 
 
CLERICUS. 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 theij 
 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 tbe 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 : Cotisule 
 scholas Jesuitarum, is his well known text ; 
 mhil enim quod in usum vend, his melius. — 
 De dign. et augm. Scient. 1. 6. He had already 
 said (I. l) of the Jesuits, Quorum cum in-- 
 tueor industriam solertiamque, tarn in doctrina 
 exculenda, quam in rnoribus informandis, illud 
 
302 LETTERS OF 
 
 ocairrit Agesilai de Pharnahaso : Talis cum sis, 
 utinam Jiostor esses,"' 
 
 The testimony of Bacon overbalances ten 
 thousand Encyclopedists, Eind 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 pro- 
 testants — 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 
 lie 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 w^ould be 
 enervated by translation. (See Grotius Hist, 
 1. iii, p. 273. edit. Amstelod. an. l658.) Here 
 he employs the nervous style of Tacitus, to 
 describe the origin of the Jesuits, the purity of 
 their morals, their zeal to propagate Christia- 
 
CLERICUS. 303 
 
 iiity, to instruct youth, the respect which they 
 had justly acquired^ their disinterestedness, their 
 prudence in commanding, their fidelity in obey- 
 ing, their moderation in all their dealings, their 
 progress and increase, &c. &c. '^ Mores incuU 
 patos, honas artes, magna in vulgurn aiictorUas 
 oh vitce sanctimoniam, — Saplenter imperant, 
 
 JideUter parent. — Novlssimi omnium, sectas pri- 
 ores Jama vicere, hoc ipso cceteris invisi, — Medii 
 
 fadum inter obsequium et tristem arrogantiam, 
 necfugmnt hominwn vitia, nee sequuntur, &c. 
 
 You may hear once more from 
 
 CLERICUS. 
 
304 LETTERS or 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Ecce itcrum Crispimis, tt est mihi sccpe vocandus 
 In partes. 
 
 Juv. Sat. 4. 
 
 WHAT ! Laicus once more ! And is he not 
 then prostrate on the ground, gagged and 
 muzzled heyond the possibility of barking ? 
 His ignorance, his falsehoods, his sophistry, 
 have been sufficiently branded ; yet, spider-like. 
 
 Destroy his slander ami 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 hi^ 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 
 
CLERlCUS. 305 
 
 his falsehoods from vainly boasting, that slan- 
 der 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 conti- 
 nually ])ractised, and immoral doctrines conti- 
 nually 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, 
 hut now uninteresting task, to disprove these 
 several imputations ; and this has long since 
 been victoriously done. It may suffice td 
 know, that they were all advanced by party 
 men, maddened by civil and religious rag^ : 
 they are registered only in the murky pages 
 pf antiquated libels, and they are here repro- 
 duced for the dishonest purpose of black- 
 ening virtue, which tiiumphed over them, when 
 they were fresh. Pamphlets of Hugonots, 
 libels of loose catholics, declamations of rival 
 teachers, who apprehended their oxyu humilia- 
 tio^ri in the success of the Jesuits, Plaidot/ers, 
 
 2 R 
 
306 LETTERS OF 
 
 RequisitoireSy and harangues af Pasquiers and 
 Harlays, sworn enemies of the society, Arr^U 
 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 17^0, and the ensuing years, as a pow- 
 erful engine to accomplish the utter destruction 
 of their kno^vn and common enemies. It is need- 
 less 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, Baniere and 
 Chatel. Now Varade was defended and cleared 
 by an advocate, to whom no rcjily could be 
 made : this was Henry IV himself, who, in his 
 famous answer to the parliamentary president 
 
CLERICL'S. 307 
 
 Hailay, vindicated the honour and the inno- 
 cence of that Jesuit and of all his associates, in 
 a strain of eloquence, which HaHay 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 ex- 
 asperate smothered passions, by mutual re- 
 proaches, 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 sin- 
 cere. 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 
 jdepended, 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 suj)port them^ Wh^vi 
 
308 LETTERS OF 
 
 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 Laicu& 
 impudently names in his list of Jesuit regicides. 
 In sach rage of faction, it is no wonder that the 
 parliament erected a pillar to the infamy of th^ 
 persecuted Jesuits. It was not quite so tall as 
 the British monument, which still attests to th^ 
 heavens, in the words of the lord mayor. Pati- 
 ence 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 uncoatra- 
 dieted*. To the article of regicides I add, that 
 
 * Pope, indeed, has contradicted the calumny in his 
 energetic verse. 
 
 Where London's column, pointing at the skies, 
 Like a tall bullj/, lifts the head, and lies. 
 In spite of which, the column is still allowed to disgrace 
 the first city in the world, though it tqtters, and daily nods 
 flestritction aromid it. — Ed, 
 
CLERICUS. 309 
 
 the attempt on the life of Louis XV^ in 1757, 
 was not imputed to Jesuits, either hy parlia- 
 jnents, or hy Jpvnsenists. The calumny in the 
 fourth Letter is, I imagine, the undisputed pro- 
 perty of Laicus or his prompters'*. 
 
 * 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. Who- 
 ever knows thy 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 uncounnon 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 in- 
 terrogated 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 
 ipembers of the parliament, on whom he w aited ; his design 
 being, as he pretended, only to make the king more atten- 
 tive to the voice and complaints of the people. Notwith- 
 standing the certainty of this, one of the above mentioned/ 
 Italian libels, written per il miriuto populo, informs thtm 
 roundly, that the Jesuits were accomplices of Damiens, 
 and that two Jesuits were privately hanged for it in the 
 
310 LETTERS OF 
 
 On the second head of accusation — immoral 
 docti ine — I wish to be short. The purity of the 
 Jesuits' doctrine and morals was solemnly attest- 
 ed })y the most qua! i tied judges, a special assem- 
 bly of fifty cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, of 
 the Cdllic church, convened by Louis XV ; and 
 their repori was confirmed by many other pre- 
 lates, Vvbo 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, w ho were spread 
 through France, of any immoral principle, doc- 
 trine, or practice. The parliament still pur- 
 sued their beaten track. // faut denigrer les 
 Jeswtes was their maxim. Envy, with her 
 hundred jaundiced eyes, w^as 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! 
 
 Bastille. But why was not Laiciis equally trusted with thc^ 
 secrets of that state prison ? Possibly he has learned this. 
 lesson from his oracle Coudrette. He cannot howevej? 
 
 glory in the invention. 
 
CLERICUS. 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 tusk of blackening 
 the dead to the impure pens of Jansenists, 
 headed principally by Dom. Clemencet. From 
 this man's foul laboratory proceeded the Ex- 
 traits des Assertions, a monstrous compilation 
 of forged and falsified texts, purporting to con- 
 tain the uniform doctrine, taught invariably at 
 all times by the whole society of Jesus, and to 
 exhibit a fair picture of their morals. The })ar- 
 liament sanctioned, and addressed this abomina- 
 ble 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 
 cx)ndeiHned and forbade it to be kept or read. 
 The celebrated archbishop of Paris, De Beau- 
 mont, in particular, demonstrated the forgeries 
 and artful falsifications, which it contained, and 
 it was moreover solidly refuted by La Repome au,j^ 
 
312 LETTERS OF 
 
 Assertions. This laboured piece of Jansenistical 
 malice seems to be unknown to Laicus and his as- 
 sociates^ though he has copied and cited several 
 of the vile libels, which were industriously cir- 
 culated, 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 dispa- 
 rates^ as Louis XIV, the miserable Jacques 
 Clement, and the weak English archpriest 
 Blackwell. It has, upon motives equally invi- 
 dious, transformed to Jesuits two churchmen of 
 the first rate merit, the cardinals Allen and Barbe- 
 rini, 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 anv other connexion with Jesuits, than the 
 
CLERICUS. 313 
 
 intercourse of friendship and esteem. But Cou- 
 drette 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 society des gens-de-let t res, though friendly 
 to the Jansenists, styles Coudrette un ennemi 
 aehamd des Jesuits, The other, by the well 
 known abbe Feller, a man of very general infor- 
 mation, asserts, that Coudrette had been from 
 his youth, de tres bonne heure, a violent partisan 
 of Jansenism, closely connected with the abb6 
 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 
 Noiwelles Ecclesiastiques, the well known Jan- 
 
 2 s 
 
314 LETTERS OF 
 
 senistical gazette. When the parliaments de- 
 nounced 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 : hut 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 *. 
 
 I have done with Laicus and his authorities. 
 He promises a commentary upon his own per- 
 formance. It has not, I believe, yet appeared, 
 
 * It may be suspected, that Coudrette is really the wri- 
 ter, to whom, suppressing his name, Robertson so often re- 
 fers his readers, in his account of Jesuits, in the Life ofiv. 
 Charges V. Perhaps he was ashamed to name such an au- 
 thor. But he had already forfeited his title to historical 
 impartiality, by acknowledging, that his unfavourable ac- 
 count of the Jesuits is derived from the Cojnptes JRendus and 
 Requisitoires of Iia Chalotais, attorney generaLof the parlia(- 
 ment of Bretagne, who, not less than Coudrette, was truly 
 un ennemi acharne des Jesuites. 
 
CLERICUS. 315 
 
 even in the Times. Mine shall be very 
 short. 
 
 Though 1 have proved Laicus and his asso- 
 ciates to he 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 pro- 
 duced the late horrible successes of rebellion and 
 infidelity. They all know, that the Jesuits, when 
 their body was intire, were among the most ac- 
 tive 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, 
 •ven in the smallest points ? Who will be sur- 
 
3l6 LETTERS or 
 
 prised, that the heroic Alexander continues to, 
 distinguish them by fresh favours ? Who will 
 cavil at Piue 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 pre- 
 sent by 
 
 CLERICUa 
 
CLERICU3, 317 
 
 LETTER V, 
 
 Servetur ad imum 
 Sualis ah 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 com-^ 
 mon information, or of common sense, will 
 catch the alarm of danger from your pretended 
 conclusions. Your impotent ciies 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 ^. Thus, even if your pre- 
 
 * " They,** said Dr. Johnson, " who would cry out Popert/ 
 in the present day, would have cried Fire in the time of the 
 deluge,*' 
 
318 LETTERS OF 
 
 tended 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 precau-' 
 tions, where no danger can possibly exist* But 
 what must every thinking man conclude, when 
 he knows, that your miserable inferences de- 
 scend from a mass of forgeries, calumnies, im- 
 putations equally groundless and malicious ; 
 when he traces them up to a string of gratuitous 
 suppositions, wantonly assumed and totally de- 
 void 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. 
 
CLERICUS. 319 
 
 And what then can engage me to meddle with 
 your final observations and inferences ? Cer- 
 tainly 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 wa« the alarming story in the reign of 
 Charles II, of thirty thousand pijgrims and lay 
 brothers, embodied at St. Andero, ready to in- 
 vade old England under the conduct of the 
 general of the Jesuits. Now your monstrous 
 .stories coming npon 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 
 
520 LETTERS OF 
 
 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 preset times ?" — " But," cries La- 
 icus, " 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*." ^^ Yes, these English Jesuits laid 
 upon us ^ a yohe, which was too heavi/ for 
 
 * See Letter V, 
 
CLERICUS. 321 
 
 mir fathers to hear," and the pope is again 
 trying to fasten it upon our shoulders." &c. '^ 
 
 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 de- 
 scribed 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 
 
 * See Letter V. 
 
322 LETTERS OF 
 
 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 sin- 
 gle 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 cen- 
 tury, towards their own aggrandizement, which, 
 says Laicus, " is the main object of all their 
 labours*." 
 
 When the scene of blood was finally closed, 
 in 168O, by the execution of eight innocent 
 Jesuits in one year, not to mention a dozen 
 
 * See Letter V. 
 
CLERICUS. 323 
 
 others, who died in jail, many of them under 
 sentence of death, the Jesuits still remained an 
 inoffensive hody of catholic missionary priests. 
 Then- object Avas 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 par- 
 tiality of the laws denied them at home. In 
 these pacific occupations they persevered, with- 
 out 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 
 aU 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 ; 
 
354 LETTERS OF 
 
 and every thinking man must feel the importance 
 and^ at the present day, the necessity, of attach- 
 ing these millions to the common cause of the 
 empire, and to the cordial support of one com- 
 mon 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 edu- 
 cation 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 
 
CLERICUS. 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 ve- 
 nerable missioners of the society of Jesuits were 
 dragooned out of Portuguese and Spanisli Ame- 
 rica, the loss of millions of Indians, whom 
 they had civilized, nay, the loss of the territorial 
 possession was loudly predicted to those mis- 
 guided 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 na- 
 tives, 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 LETTERS OF 
 
 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, ma- 
 gistrates 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 Cler- 
 mont 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 ex- 
 pulsion 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 
 
CLERICUS. 32^ 
 
 sanguinary demagogues of that execrable 
 period ; names of monsters, now consigned 
 to everlasting infamy. The game was, in- 
 deed, 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 pontiif, 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 survivi^ig 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 LETTERS or 
 
 Russia, and the far fumed Frederic III, of 
 Prussia. These sovereigns were not ignorant of 
 the various artifices, Avhich 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, Ver- 
 sailles, Lisbon, and Madrid, maintained, with 
 a resolute and strong hand, the several houses of 
 Jesuits, which she found in her new Polish do- 
 minions; she would not suffer even the smallest 
 alteration to be made, in any of their statutes 
 or practices. Her tv/o 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 che- 
 rishes 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 ca- 
 tholic Poles, lately united to their empire*. 
 
 * The preservation of the society of Jesus in the 
 Eussian empire, in spite of innumerable solicitations. 
 
CLERICUS. 329 
 
 Most undoubtedly, next to the purity of re- 
 ligion, the best and dearest interest of the Jesuits 
 always was, and always must be, public tran- 
 quillity, 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 180.^ 
 the court of Naples, convinced of its past error, 
 reinstated the Jesuits, to the universal joy of 
 the capital; and immediately Napoleon seized 
 
 schemes, and intrigues employed to procure its sup- 
 pression, would form a curious morsel of particular history, 
 highly honourable to the court of Petersburg and creditable 
 to the Jesuits. 
 
 2 U 
 
330 LETTERS or 
 
 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 mo- 
 tive of self-preservation, as well as of duty, will 
 always employ their influence among the lower 
 orders of society, to maintain peace and tran- 
 quillity in the several religious classes, which 
 form the bulk of the people, however deno- 
 minated. With regard to the numerous body 
 of catholics, this line of conduct has been uni- 
 formly pursued by their Irish bishops, by the 
 
CLERICUS, 331 
 
 Englisli apostolic vicars, and by all the mis- 
 sionary 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 pre- 
 serve general tranquillity. Protestant and ca- 
 tholic prelates, with their respective dependants, 
 all equally professing zeal for purity of doctrine, 
 though differing in their tenets, would thus be 
 friends tisque ad aras, and general peace would 
 be the precious fruits of their agreement. Thus 
 we have often seen catholic and protestant le- 
 gions, 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. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Sanctissimi in Christo Patris et Domini nostri Domini 
 dementis Divina Providentia Papce XIII, Con- 
 stitutio qua institutum Societatis Jesu denuo appro- 
 hatur* 
 
 Clemens Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei, 
 ad perpetuam rei memoriam. 
 
 APOSTOLICUM pascendi Dominici Gregis munus 
 beatissimo apostolo Petro, ej usque successor! Romano 
 pontifici delatum a Christo Domino, nulla locorum, nulla 
 temporum conditio, nuUus humanarum rerum respectus, 
 nulla denique ratio circumscribere, aut suspendere potest, 
 quominus idem Romanus pontifex ad omnes ejusdem 
 officii partes, null^ ex iis preetermissa, nulla neglecta, curas 
 suas dirigere debeat, atque omnibus incuiTentibus in 
 ecclesia necessitatibus providere. Harum partium inter 
 praecipuas, postrema non est regularium ordinum appro- 
 batorum ab apostolica sede tutelam genere, ac fortibus 
 piisque viris, qui eisdem regularibus ordinibus sese solemni 
 Sacramento addixerunt, suamque pro tuenda, atque am- 
 
336 APPENBIX. 
 
 plificanda cathollca religione, agroque dominico exco- 
 lendo, strenuam operam impendunt, alacritatem addere 
 et animum, languidos et infirmos excitare, et corroborare, 
 jacentibus afflictlsque consolationem afferre, preecipue 
 vero ab ecclesia fidei suae et custodise concredit^, omnia, 
 quae in animarum ruinam in dies suboriuntur, scandala 
 summovere. 
 
 Institutum societatis Jesu ab homine conditum, cui ab 
 iiniversali ecclesia idem, qui Sanctis viris cultus et honor 
 tribuitur, a fel. record, prssdecessoribus nostris Paulo III 
 et Julio itidem III, Paulo IV, Gregorio XIII, et Gre- 
 gorio XIV, Paulo V, diligenti examine perpensum, ap- 
 probatum, saepius confirmatum, et ab iisdem pluribusque 
 aliis ad novemdecim praedecessoribus nostris ornatum 
 peculiaribus favoribus et gratiis; episcoporum, non mod5 
 hujus, sed superiorum etiam setatum praeconio commen- 
 datum, ut maxime frugiferum, et fructuosum, et ad pro- 
 movendum Dei cultum, honorem, et gloriam, seternamque 
 animarum salutem procurandam aptissim&m; potentissi- 
 morum, piissimorumque regum, et clarissimorum in 
 Christiana republica principura prsesidio, 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, coUaudatum ; quod ecclesia uni versa longo 
 duorum saeculorum spatio in suo sinu aluit et fovit, 
 ej usque 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 fue- 
 runt^ qui per pravas interpretationes^ turn privatis ser- 
 
BULL OF tLEMENT XIII. 337 
 
 monibus, turn scriptis etiam typis in lucem editis irreli- 
 giosum, et impiuin appellare, contumeliis lacerare, probo 
 et ignomini^ afficere non sunt veriti, atque eo devenerunt, 
 ut privatfi snk non content! opinione, hujusmodi virus de 
 regione in regionem, nullis non adhibitis artibus, derivare, 
 atque undequaque diffundere sint aggressi, neque adhuc 
 cessant, incautis, si quos inveniant, Cliristi fidelibus, ut 
 in proprios pertrahant sensus, subdole propinare : quo in 
 ecclesiam Dei nihil injurium magis, nihil contumeliosius, 
 quasi adeo enaverit turpiter, ut, quod impium, et irreli- 
 giosum est, solemniter existimaverit Deo carum et pium, 
 eoque decepta sit fiagitiosius, quo diuturnius, ad annos 
 scilicet amplius ducentos, cum maximo animarum detri- 
 mento, sinui suo tantam haerere labem, et maculam 
 sustinuerit. Huic tanto malo, quod eo longiiis dissimu- 
 latum, tanto altiiis radices agit, viresque acquirit in dies, 
 diutius differre remedium, justitia, quoe swa cuique asserere 
 ct fortiter tueri jubet, et pastoralis nostra erga ecclesiam 
 sollicitudo non sinit. 
 
 Ut igitur tarn gravem injuriam a sponsa ecclesia diYi- 
 nitus nobis concredita, atque etiam afe hac apostolica sede 
 propulsemus, et hujusmodi injustas, irreligiosasque voces 
 in animarum pernlciem, et seductionem, et contra omnes 
 gequi, bonique rationes longe lateque difFusas, nostril 
 authcritate apostolica compescamus ; ut clericis regularibus 
 societatis Jesu, id a nobis pro justitia exigentibus, suus 
 maneat status, e^dem nostr^ authoritate firmiiis consta- 
 bilitus; eorumque nunc temporis summe afflictis rebus 
 aliquod afferamus levamen : ut demum venerabilium 
 fratrum nostrorum episcoporum, qui ex omnibus re- 
 gionibus catholicis eandem secietatem nobis per litteras 
 
 2 X 
 
338 APPENDIX. 
 
 magnopere commendarunt, et ex ea maximas utilltates in 
 suis quisque dioecesibus se capere profitentur, justis desi- 
 deriis obsecundemus ; motu p'roprio, et ex certa scientia, 
 deque apostolicse potestatis plenitudine, omnium prifide- 
 cessorum nostrorum inh^erendo vestigiis, hac nostr^ per- 
 petuo valitura constitutione, eodem modo, ratione et 
 forma, quibus ipsi edixerunt, et declar^runt, nos quoque 
 edicimus, et declaramus ; institutum societatis Jesu sum- 
 mopere redolere pietatem et sanctitatemj turn ob prseci- 
 puum finem, quo maxime spectat, defensioaem scilicet, 
 propagationemque cathollcee religionis, turn ob media, 
 quae adhibet ad ejusmodi finem consequendum, quod vel 
 ipsa nos hactenus docuit cxperientia; ctim ex eadem 
 disciplina tam multos ad banc usque aetatem prodiisse 
 novimus ortbodoxse fidei propugnatores, sacrosque prse- 
 cones, qui invicto animi robore terr^ marique subi^re 
 pericula, ut ad gentes inmanitate barbaras evangelicse 
 doctrinse lumen afFerrent, et quotquot idem profitentur 
 laudabile institutum, partim intentos juventuti religione 
 ^t bonis artibus erudiendae, partim operam dare spiritu- 
 alibus exercitils tradendis, partim assldue versari ia 
 sacramentis prsecipue poenitentise et eucharistise admini- 
 strandls et ad eorum frequentiorem usum fidelibus exci- 
 tandis ; tum homines in agris degentes divini verbi pabulo 
 recreare 5 ac propterea idem institutum societatis Jesu ad 
 base eximia perpetranda, diving providently, excitatum, 
 ipsi quoque approbamus, et prsedecessorm nostrorum 
 approbationesejusdem instituti apostolica auctoritate nostr& 
 confirmamus : vota, quibus iidem clerici regulares socie- 
 tatis Jesu juxta idem eorum institutum se devovent Deo, 
 grata illi et accepta esse declaramus : spiritualia exercitia,-- 
 
BULL OP CLEMENT XIII. 33D 
 
 quae ab lisdem clericis regularibus traduntur fidelibus k 
 inundi strepitii semotis per dies aliquot, ut de seterna fui 
 ipsorum salute serio et unice cogitent, ut maxime condu- 
 cibib'a ad reform andos mores, et ad Christianam pletatem 
 hauriendam nutriendamque, magnopere probamus, et 
 laudamus : congrcgatloiies prseterea, seu sodalitia, noQ 
 mode adolescentium, qui ad scbolas ventltant societatis 
 Jesu, sed quaevis alia, sive scholarium tantum, sive ali- 
 orum Christi fidelium tantum, sive utrorumque simul sub 
 invocatlone beatae Mariae, seu quovis alio titulo erecta, et 
 quae iniis 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, Gre- 
 gorii XV, et Benedicti XIV constitutiones, quibus ea 
 Bodalitia approbarunt, nos apostolica auctoritate nostril 
 confirmamus, caeterasque omnes constitutiones a Romanis 
 pontilicibus praedecessoribus nostris in ejusdem insiituti 
 societatis Jesu functionum approbatlonem, et laudem 
 conditas, quarum siugulas bic babcri volumus pro insertis, 
 auctoritate itidera nobis a Deo tradita, apostolicae confir- 
 mationis nostrae robore, per banc nostram constitutionem, 
 mullitas volumus, et si opus sit, velut a nobis ex integro 
 conditas, editasque censeri praecipimus, et mandamus. 
 
 NuUi ergo omnino hominum liceat banc paginam 
 nostrae approbation is, et confirmationis infringcre, vel ei 
 ausu temerario contraire : si quis autem boc attentare 
 prsesumpserit, indignationem Omnipotentis Dei et bea- 
 torum Petri et Pauli apostolorum ejus se noverit incur" 
 £urum. 
 
^40 APPENDIX. 
 
 Datum Romae apud Sanctara Marlam Majorcm*, anno 
 incarnationis Domiiiicss millesinjo septingentesimo sexa-o 
 gesimo quarto, septimo idus Januarii, pontificates nostri 
 anno septimo. 
 
 C. Card, Pro-Datarius. N. Card. Antonellus. 
 
 Visa, De Curia J, Manassei. 
 
 L. Eugenius. 
 (Loco Plumbi.) 
 
 Jtegistrata in Secretaria Brevium, 
 
 * Curia Romana annum inchoat a Festo Annuntiationis B. Mariae, 
 quod incidit in diem 25 Martii, adeoque septimus idus Januarii 1764, 
 coincidit cum 7 Januarii hujus anni 1765, secundum nostram com- 
 putatidi rationem. 
 
 Translation, 
 
 Clement, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, 
 for a pe'ipetual record. 
 
 THE apostolic office of feeding the Lord's flock, con- 
 ferred 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 omis- 
 sion, and provide for all the wants which may occur in 
 the church. Among those duties it is not the least to 
 
BULL OP CLEMENT XIII. 341 
 
 give protection to the regular orders approved by the 
 ftpostolic 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 affiicted, but chiefly to remove from the ehurch, 
 entrusted to his faith and custody, all scandals, which 
 from time to time spring up to the destruction of souls. 
 
 Tlie 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 cele- 
 brated 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 re- 
 ceived 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 tlie council of Trent : yet there have lately 
 
312 APPENDIX. 
 
 appeared some, who, by wicked interpretations, have 
 tiared, not only in conversation Ijut in writings and pub- 
 lications, to call this veryjjastitjiteJixeli^ious^ and impious, 
 to revile it, and represent it as v/icked and shameful ; and 
 have gone such lengths, that, not content with their own 
 private thouglits, they have endeavoured, using every art, 
 to convey the like poison from country to country, and to 
 pour it out everyvv'here ; nor have they yet ceased, where- 
 ever they can find any of the f^iithful off their guard, to 
 instil craftily their ovvn 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 esta- 
 blished liy the same our authority, and that we may afford 
 
BULL OF CLEMENT XIIL, S<3 
 
 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 hi 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 propa- 
 gation of the catholic religion, as on account of the means 
 which it directs to be used for that end, hitherto con- 
 firmed 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 alvvays 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 excitir.^^ the faithful to a frequent use of 
 them ; likewise in refreshing the inhabitants of country 
 places with the divine food of tlie word of God : and as 
 it evidently appears, that the said institute of the society 
 of Jesus has been established bv the Divine Providence 
 
341 APPENDIX* 
 
 for these great ends, we also approve it, and, in virtue of 
 our apostolical authority, we confirm the approbation of 
 our predecessors b?: towed on the said institute : we de* 
 clare, that the vows by which the said regular clerks of 
 the society of Jesus devote themselves, according to the 
 said institute, to God, aie 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, Sex- 
 tus 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 apijrobation of the oilfices 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, 
 
BULL OF CLEMENT XIII. S45 
 
 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. 
 
 2 Y 
 
346 APPENDIX. 
 
 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 maj-sty was pleased to allow us for 
 examining the points in question v/as very short, we ap- 
 plied ourselves to the task with more than ordinary dili- 
 gence 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 ordei 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: — 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 347 
 
 Article f. ^' Of what use the Jesuits may be in France: 
 the advantages or inconveniences that may attend the 
 various functions, which they exercise under our au- 
 thority/' 
 
 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 dis- 
 tinguishing 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 reli- 
 gious 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 Borromosus, 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 advan- 
 tages arising to the church from their zealous endeavours. 
 The ambassadors sent by otlier princes to represent them 
 in that council had the same favourable opinion of the 
 Jesuits, as plainly appears from their proposing the esta- 
 blishment of these religious in Germany, as the most effica- 
 cious means to restore religion and piety in the empire. 
 
348 APPENDIX. 
 
 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 esta- 
 blishment 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 Bel lay, the then bishop of Paris, opposed 
 them, and even the clergy of France, in their assembly 
 at Poissy, anno 1561, expressed a diffidence and appre- 
 hensif)n. 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 J 574, the clergy of your kingdom, having been 
 apprised of ;he credit and the approbation this institution 
 had gained in the council of Trent, in conformity to the 
 judgmejit of that general assembly, declare by their 
 d"j)uties, upon the article concerning the profession of 
 novices after one year's probation, that, by this rule, their 
 intnitin was not any way to derogate from or to 
 make a})y change in the good fonstitittions 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 pnjudices, which had formerly 
 been conceived against their order, seeing that, in the 
 year KJIO, when so great a storm was raised against 
 them, Henry de Gondy, bishop of Paris, gives their 
 
JUDGMENT OP THE BISKOPS OF FRANCE. 3 J9 
 
 character in words very difFercnt from those of his pre- 
 decessor, Eustace de Bellay, viz. that the order of the 
 Jesuits was greatly serviceable both to church and 
 state, on account of their learning, pieti/, and exem- 
 plary behaviour. 
 
 Hence it was, that, in the general assemhly of the 
 states, anno 1614 and 1()15, 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 sen- 
 sible how greatly the order of the Jesuits, by their 
 learning and industry, had contribvMd, and, with God's 
 assistance, ivould again contribute towards the main- 
 taining of faith and religion, the extirpation of he^ 
 resies, the restoration of piety and morality. See, 
 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, periiaps, is better calculated to convince us 
 how high an idea your majesty's royal predecessoi's 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 vietv them to 
 
B50 APPENDIX. 
 
 support, countenance, and encourage those religious in 
 theJi- lahorio'tU emjiloyments for the education of youth 
 in all useful sciences, and particularly in the know- 
 ledge of whatever may concern their duty towards God, 
 and towards those ivho 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 au- 
 thority. 
 
 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 commu- 
 nity, they have not a sufficient number of persons to 
 supply the place of the Jesuits. The secular clergy. 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 351 
 
 indeed, with the allowance of the bishop, may undertake 
 this emplo3'ment : but, not having been brought up to it 
 fronn 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 o'' 
 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 qualifi- 
 cations 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 tiiis 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 
 piovide another in his room; an advantage not to be 
 expected in religious orders that are not so strictly ad- 
 dicted 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 APPENDIX. 
 
 Christ and of the council of Trent concerning tlie 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 in- 
 structions 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 
 16S2 ; 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 endea- 
 vour 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 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 353 
 
 tlie miiids 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 pub- 
 lished 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' in- 
 nocence. 
 
 And, indeed, the Inviolable fidelity of the bishops of 
 your kingdom, and their sincere attacliment 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 
 
 2 z 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 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*', 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 parlia- 
 ments, 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 
 
 * The French Leaeue. 
 
JUDGMENT OP THE BISHaPS OF FRANCE. 355 
 
 any doctrine or opinion that may ixi 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 king- 
 dom. 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, 
 eitlier to bishops or to their ecclesiastical superiors. But 
 
356 APPENDIX. 
 
 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), ^hat 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 hollness's com- 
 mand, 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 whh 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 vi'ay con- 
 cern the state, without the approbation of the sovereign. 
 
 However, we find, even to the year 1670, that the 
 Jesuits, as weU as the other mendicant orders, used theyr 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 357 
 
 best encleavoui*s to maintain tliese 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 seen! 
 to intrench, either on the established maxims of the 
 kingdom, or on the liberties of the Galilean church; and, 
 85 they stiil persist in that renunciation, and have ex- 
 pressed 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 Galilean 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. 
 
35S APPENDIX. 
 
 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; v/hich 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 
 scholai*s, 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 per- 
 mission. 
 
 3. That they shall send all their penitents, even their 
 own scholars and pensioners, to receive the paschal com- 
 munion in the parish church, unless they have a dis- 
 pensation from the curate or bishop. 
 
 4. I'hat 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 bishcp. 
 
 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 philo- 
 sophy, 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, with- 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE, 359 
 
 out having them first examined and approved by the 
 bishop. 
 
 y. Wlienever it shall seem good to the bishop, he shall 
 be allowed to see and examine the books they make iise 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 ad* 
 vancement 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 
 whhout having it first examined and approved by tlie 
 bishop. By all which we do not intend any wav to 
 derogate from any other rights, which the French clergy 
 may have over tlie Jesuits or other regulars. 
 
 14. In the exercise of the different duties of their 
 calling they shall not encroach upon the rights of chap- 
 ters, cunites, universities, or any body of men, who art 
 permitted to teach in this kingdom. 
 
360 Appendix. 
 
 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 in- 
 valuable 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 ta 
 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, Deciarat Constitut. tom. i, 
 p. 408, it is said. Let our obedience be always most 
 ferfect^ as ivell in the execution as in our luill and 
 judgment, performing all that is co7nmanded luitk the 
 greatest alacrity, spiritual joy, and perseverance ; 
 persuading ourselves, tJiat all is right which is com- 
 manded ; denying and rejecting, by a kind of blind 
 obedience, any private judgment or opinion of our otvn 
 to the contrary. And thus ive are to behave with 
 regard to tuhcctever our superior may cojnmand, when 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 361 
 
 U 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 
 to all their superiors' commands, which are not repugnant 
 to faith or morality* But what danger can be appre- 
 hended, either to the church or state, from that obedience, 
 which is not sinful on any account, which is neither pre- 
 judicial 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 autho- 
 rity 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 them- 
 selves 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 oiiedience; 
 it may suffice to observe, that they all make use of the 
 
 3 A 
 
362 APPENDIX. 
 
 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* from the assistants, and immediately proceed to 
 the arraignment, trial, and deposition of the general f, 
 
 * Si accident aliquod ex peccatls (avertas id Deus), quae sufiiciunt 
 ad prgepositum officio privandum, simul atque res per sufficientia 
 testimonia, vel ipsius affirmationem constaret, juramento adstrin- 
 gantur assistentes ad id societati denuntiandum. — Cap. V. art. ir« 
 p. 440. 
 
 f Et si res dfevulgata et communiter manifesta esset, non expectati 
 quatuor assistentium confirmatione, provinciales alii alios vocando 
 convenire debeiit, et ipso primo die quo in locum hujusmodi con- 
 gregationis ingredientur, ubi aderunt quatuor qui conrocarunt, cum 
 aliis congregatis, rem is aggrediatur cui omnia notoria sunt, et accu- 
 satio dilucid^ explicetur. Et postquam auditus fuerit praepositus, 
 foras egredi debebit, et antiquis«imus ex provincialibus simul cum 
 secretario aut alio assistente, de lata re scrutinium faciat, et prima 
 quidem an constet de peccato quod objicitur, deinde an ejusmodi sit 
 ut propter id officio privari debeat ; et idem suffragia promulget, qua 
 ut sufficiant duas tertias partes excedcnt ; et tunc statim de alio 
 eligendo agatur, et si fieri potest, non inde prius egrediatur qua» 
 societas prapositum generalera habeat. — Ibid. p. 440. 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 3G3 
 
 Hhom also, if they judge it necessary, they nlay 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, tl.at the general of the Jesuits has not 
 power to disDOse of the least thing in his own behalf or to 
 his private advantage, nor can so much a3 command any 
 other diet or apparel, than that which is assigned him by 
 the society*. 
 
 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 counself; and 
 nothing, perhaps, discovers the wnsdom 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 solicita- 
 tion 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 prefer- 
 ment, evils which are not easily guarded against, and are 
 
 * Prima ad res externas pertinet vestitfis, victus et expensarurn 
 quarumlibet, quae omnia vel augere, vel iniminuere poterit societas 
 prout prajpositum insum ac se deoere et Deo gratius fore judicabit et 
 tunc societatis ordinatioui acquiescere oportebit. — Cap. IV, art. ix, 
 p. 459, torn. i. 
 
 f Numero autem hujusmodi assistentium qnidem quatuor et 
 
 quidem illi ipsi esse poterunt de quious supradictum quaoivis 
 
 autem res gravjores ab iis tractandae sint, statuendi tamen facultas, 
 postquam eos audierit, pen^s praepositum gencralem erit. — Cap. YI, 
 art. i^ p. 444, torn. ii. 
 
o6'4 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 often the cause of fatal divisions in communities, of scan- 
 dalous 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, pro- 
 vided 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 Httle 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 employ- 
 ments 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 ail anxiety and solicitude concerning the dis- 
 positions 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 employ- 
 ment, 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*, that he has power 
 
 * Est item penes praepositum generalem omnis facultas agend 
 quosvis contractus emptionum aut venditionum quorumlibet bonorum 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 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*. 
 He cannot transfer the revenues of one college to another, 
 nor assign any part of them for the maintenance of Pro- 
 fest Houses -f, 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 4:, who may 
 sell them, and annex them to any house, as he shall judge 
 most expedient for promoting God's honour and the good 
 
 temporalium mobilium tam domorum qnam collegiorum societatis, 
 et imponendi aut redimendi quoslibet census super bonis stabilibus 
 ipsorum collegiorum, in eorumdem utilitatem et bonum, cum facul- 
 tate sese liberandi, restituta pecunia quae data fuerit. Alienare autetn 
 aut omnino dissolvere collegia vel domos jam creatas societatis sine 
 general i ejus congregatione prcepositus generalis non poterit. — Cap. III. 
 col. ii, p. 336, torn. i. 
 
 * 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 
 lis quae ad bonum regimen coiiegiorum ad majus Dei ac Domini nostri 
 obsequium provider! convenit. — Cap. I, tit. i, p. 392, 
 
 f Transferre vel diiferre domos vel collegia jam creata, aut in 
 usum societatis professse redditus eorum convertere praepositus gene- 
 ralis, ut in 4 part, dictum est, non poterit. — Cap. IV, art. xlviii, 
 p. 438. 
 
 I De his vero quae societati itarelinquuntur ut ipsa pro suo arbitratu 
 ^t regat et disponat (sive ilia 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. 
 -r-Cap. in, art. vi, p. 437. col. ii, tit. 2. 
 
SG6 APPENDIX. 
 
 of religion ; but with this caution, that, when such do- 
 nations are made by persons who enter into the society, 
 they be not alienated from the province*, 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 con- 
 sent!, 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 J. Hence it is plain, that the 
 
 * Declaratum est ut haec bona tanlum 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 dicunlur bona nostrorum quae illi societati dare volunt, inteili-* 
 genda est, in qua sunt ipsa bona, non autem in qui quis societatem 
 ingveditur, aut versatur. Suinitur autem provinciae nomeu more 
 societatis, prout scilicet uni proeposito provinciali subest. 
 
 f Quod si in eidem provincia plura sint dominia diversis princi- 
 pibus ;-ubjecta, adjecit congregatio diligenter servandam esse eamdem 
 constitutionem ut scilicet in transferendis hujusmodi fratrum nostro- 
 rum bonis ex uno Dominio in aliud ejusdem provinciae societatis, 
 ratio haberetur regum, principum et aliorum potestatum, ne in eis 
 causa ul!a offensionis detur, sed ad majorem aedificationem omnium 
 et spiritualem animarum profectum et gloriam Dei omnia cedant.— * 
 Tom. i. p. 511. 
 
 + Sexta locum habet in quibusdam casibus (quos speramus per 
 Dei boiiitatera, aspirante ipsius gratia, nunquam eventuros) cujus- 
 modi essent peccata mortalia in externum actum prodeuntia, ac 
 nominatim, copula carrialis : vulnerare quemdam : ex redditibus 
 coUegiorum aliquid ad proprios sumptus assumere : vel pravam doc- 
 trinam habere. Si quid ergo horum acciderit, potest ac debet societas 
 (si de re sufRcientissim^ constaret) eum officio privare, ac si opus est, 
 a societate removere. In omnibus prae occulis habendo quod ad 
 
JUDGMENT OP THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. S6J 
 
 general is no more than a kind of steward and adminis- 
 trator of the goods and possessions belonging to the so 
 ciety, the property whereof is wholly vested in the colleges 
 and other houses. 
 
 It doth not appear to us, that this manner of adminis- 
 tration 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 king- 
 dom ; 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 de- 
 pendence 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, 
 
 majorem Dei gloriam et universale bonum societatis fore judicabitnr. 
 — Cap. XII, art. vii, p. 440, torn. i. 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 should they deviate from their duty, or forget the obe^ 
 dience due to their lawful superiors. Are we then imme- 
 diately 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 1 681, during our 
 disputes whh 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 iheir general, to disperse them immediately about 
 the kingdom 5 but they, without much deliberation, on 
 the 20th of June, produced the packet in open court, 
 and, by their candid beh^iviour in that critical conjuncture, 
 deserved that remarkable compliment from the first pre- 
 sident, 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 he 
 imposed upo7i, and hearts too loyal to he corrupted*^. 
 We are also assured by the general advocate, Talon, that 
 no one could reasonably tax the Jesuits^ ivhose beha- 
 viour on that occasion ivas fully justified by the hitter 
 repi'oach and severe reprima7id they afterwards under- 
 went, both from the pope and their oimi general \, 
 This one short passage of our history may convince us, 
 
 * Page 215, tome iv, des Memoires du Clerge. 
 f Page 451 du meine volume. 
 
JUDGMENT OF THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 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 altera- 
 tion 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 dis- 
 cover 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 Devotuniy 
 anno 17'^^'? called them most wise laws and institutions, 
 ex prcescripto sapientisshnarmn legmn 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 niim^ 
 her less strokes of consummate wisdom^. Which tes- 
 
 * Maximes et Reflections sur la Comedie, ed. de 1674, p. 158, 139. 
 
 3 B 
 
370 APPENDIX, 
 
 timonies 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 : w^e 
 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 autho- 
 rity of their general might have been any way prejudicial 
 to the state 5 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 tl^ey 
 deserved that honourable testimony of your parliament, 
 thnt 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 prede- 
 
JUDGMENT OP THE BISHOPS OF FRANCE. 37 1 
 
 cesser Henry IV, of glorious memory*, 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 great e«t_dist rust 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 con- 
 trary 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 oe Luynes. The archbp. of Cambrat. 
 
 DE Gesvres. Reims. 
 
 DE Rohan. Nakbonnb. 
 
 * Henry IV finished the letter, which he deigned to the general 
 assembly, with these words: ** Vos hortamur ad retinendam instituti 
 vestri integritatem et splendorem." 
 
372 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The archbp. of Embrun. 
 
 AUSCH. 
 
 — BoURDEAUX 
 
 ^ #, 
 
 • ■ Arles. 
 
 ■ — Toulouse. 
 
 The bishop of Langres. 
 
 ■-- — • Mans. 
 
 — Valence, 
 
 Macon. 
 
 — Baykux. 
 
 «■ Amiens. 
 
 — • No yon. 
 
 S. Papoul. 
 
 — COMMINGES. 
 
 S. Malo. 
 
 Die. 
 
 ■' ■ ■ apollonie. 
 
 S. Paul-de- 
 
 Leon. 
 
 Chartres, 
 
 The bishop of Rhodez. 
 
 — Sarlat. 
 
 • — - Orleans. 
 
 Meaux. 
 
 Arras. 
 
 ■ ~— Blois. 
 
 Metz. 
 
 Angouleme. 
 
 — Verdun. 
 
 — - — ■ Senlis. 
 
 Angers. 
 
 ■ -— DiGNE. 
 
 ■ AUTUN. 
 
 — Vence. 
 
 Evreux. 
 
 The coadjutor of Stras« 
 
 BOURG. 
 
 The bishop of Leictoure, 
 — Troyes, 
 
 ~ Nantes, 
 
 General Agents for the Clergy, 
 M. ralbe DB BuoGLiE. M. I'abbe ifB Juignb*, 
 
iETTBR OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS. 3/ 
 
 A Copi/ of the Letter of the Archbishop of Paris^ 
 datedJanuai'y 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 govern- 
 ment 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, 
 
^7'^ APPENDIX. 
 
 eminent for learning and piety, and well deserving your 
 royal protection, for the great services, which, during 
 the two last ages, they have rendered hoth to church 
 and state. 
 
 (Signed) CHRISTOPHER, 
 
 'Archbishop of Paris, 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C. WOOD, Printer, 
 Poppift's Court, Fleet Street; 
 
n 
 
 
 °ATE BORROWED 
 
 Date due 
 
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0035518553 
 
 
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