Chapter XLII: Conclusion (1)

We are now at the end of our labours; but, before parting with our readers, we would briefly call their attention to some of the chief points in our History. If we mistake not, the perusal of our narrative, imperfect as it may be, will convince even an indifferently attentive reader that Loyola had but one end in view—one fixed idea—namely, to establish an order which should domineer over society; and that his successors have been arrested by no scruples as to the means to be employed for obtaining this end. With the exception of this fixed rule, to which the Jesuits have adhered with undeviating constancy, it may be asserted that they have no principle whatever. The dogmas of their creed, the precepts of their moral code, their political principles, all these they have changed or modified according to places and circumstances. They have been against or in favour of the Roman See, according as it served or injured the interests of the order. They have proclaimed the unlimited sovereignty of the people, and have been instrumental in bringing many unfortunate persons to the scaffold, for resisting the tyrannical power of absolute monarchs. To accomplish their ends, they have all along thought that money would be the most efficient instrument; hence their insatiable desire of wealth, to accumulate which, they violated all laws, divine and human. The riches got by illicit means have been ever expended for still more culpable purposes. A Jesuit does not desire or spend money for his own personal self; he is frugal in his habits, and parsimonious in expenditure as far as regards mere comforts; but he is no miser. He does not hide his treasures in the bowels of the earth, but spends them freely to increase the influence and power of his order. The secret agent of the Society is handsomely rewarded; the spy liberally paid. Ministers of different sovereigns are bought over by princely largesses; and even the ruling beauties of courts are bribed to serve the order with costly and suitable presents.

The fathers were also persuaded, from the beginning, that it would greatly contribute to the grandeur and power of the order to insinuate themselves into the susceptible minds of the young, and they left nothing untried by which this might be effected. Other schemes—the conversion of heretics, the missions, the outward exercise of many of the Christian virtues—were all directed to the attainment of the same identical end—the aggrandisement of the order.

Two other principal facts are deserving of attention. The first is, that, from the beginning, the establishment of the Society was everywhere opposed, and in all places where it was finally admitted, it was subsequently, at different epochs, persecuted, and convicted of iniquitous and abominable crimes. The second fact is, that the Society of Jesus, though it may at times have disregarded its rules of internal policy, has nevertheless maintained its general primitive character; namely, its relentless domineering spirit, and the abnegation of every personal feeling in favour of the community. The Jesuits of the present day, unlike all other religious fraternities, which have invariably undergone so many modifications, are exactly the same as they were in Loyola’s lifetime. Founded by that bold, despotic, and ambitious man, it seems as if his spirit had transmitted itself into the whole Society, and presided over all its acts. The Company, so to speak, has perpetuated the life of Loyola. If we would personify the order, we might represent it, after his likeness, as an apparently humble and sainted man, deeply absorbed in the contemplation of heavenly things, while in reality revolving in his capacious and daring mind projects of unbounded ambition. There is no record in history of an association whose organisation has stood for three hundred years unchanged and unaltered by all the assaults of men and time, and which has exercised such an immense influence over the destinies of mankind.

This perseverance of the order in its principles and policy is comparable to nothing except the corresponding constancy of the world in the opinion which it formed of the Society at its commencement, and which it still retains. “The moment,” says an author of the beginning of the seventeenth century, “a great crime is committed, the public voice at once and unanimously accuses the Jesuits of being its perpetrators.” And the same sentiments with regard to them prevail to this day. In former times, indeed, that opinion was so strongly and universally received, that our forefathers, less scrupulous than we are in the administration of justice, at the simple announcement of a misdeed, brought the Jesuit before the tribunal, and sometimes unjustly condemned him for crimes of which he was guiltless. Do, then, the Jesuits, from the habit of committing crimes, bear on their countenances the indications of a criminal and wicked disposition, as is commonly the case with ruffians by procession? Or do they, by public and open misdemeanours, give the world a right to form this judgment of them? By no means. We have already said the reverse. They appear, on the contrary, to conduct themselves as the most innocent, most inoffensive, and holy of men; and, indeed, unless one has been present at the representation of Tartuffe, he would not easily recognise the Jesuit from the undisguisedly honest man. However, we would not be so illiberal as to say that all the Jesuits are knaves. Our lamented friend Gioberti, when Father Pellico said to him, “Are we, then, all assassins and robbers?” answered, “By no means. Individually, I consider you very honest fellows, and had I treasure, I would unhesitatingly intrust it to your keeping.” We would not perhaps go quite so far; but we will freely admit that the Jesuit may be individually honest, unless the interest of his order obliges him to be otherwise. For there are no considerations of religion, honesty, or virtue, which he does not feel himself bound peremptorily and at all times to sacrifice to this one supreme consideration. “The end sanctifies the means,” is his favourite maxim; and as his only end, as we have shewn, is the order, at its bidding the Jesuit is ready to commit any crime whatsoever.

Such, then, is the history of a Society dreaded and relied upon, worshipped and abhorred, which has produced little good, and infinite mischief, and which, having been hurled down from the pinnacle of splendour and glory, attempts now, with renewed vigour and unceasing activity, to regain the summit of its ancient pre-eminence. An appalling prospect, foreboding no good to the welfare of mankind! One cheering idea, however, still remains to dissipate the evil apprehension. The Jesuits, now more decidedly than ever, have identified themselves with the cause of despotism, fanaticism, and ignorance; and the day on which the tottering thrones of tyranny shall crumble under the mighty and resistless arm of progressive civilisation, they will bury deep and for ever under their ruins all traces of the influence once possessed by this most formidable and pernicious Society.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES

[1] _History of the Council of Trent_, by Fra Paolo Sarpi, tome i. p. 9.

[2] Helyot, _Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, Religieux et Militaires_, tome vii. p. 452. When we have modern Catholic authors who quote from Sacchinus Orlandinus, &c., we shall quote them, as books more easily to be had.

[3] Helyot, _Hist. des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil._, tome vii. p. 456.

[4] Ibid. p. 459.

[5] By the term “Spiritual Exercises,” Catholics understand that course of solitary prayer and religious meditation, generally extending over many days, which candidates for holy orders have to perform in the seclusion of a convent previous to being consecrated. Again, when a priest incurs the displeasure of his superior, he is sent as a sort of prisoner to some convent, there to perform certain prescribed “spiritual exercises,” which in this case may last from one to three weeks.

[6] The Italics here are our own.

[7] The Italics here are our own.

[8] Stephens.

[9] See the Shorter Catechism, Qu. 1.

[10] Hel. _Hist. des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil._ tome vii. p. 461.

[11] Hel. _Hist. des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil._ tome vii. p. 463.

[12] Ibid. tome vii. p. 464.

[13] Once for all, I promise my readers that I am not going to trouble them with the narrative of all the miraculous legends related concerning Loyola. They are in most instances so absurd as to be beneath the dignity of history. Let the two following suffice as specimens. It is said that the devil, determined to prevent his learning Latin, so confused his intellect that he found it impossible to remember the conjugation of the verb _amo_; whereupon he scourged himself unmercifully every day, until by that means the evil spirit was overcome, after which the saint was soon able to repeat _amo_ in all its tenses. Again, when Ignatius was in Venice on his way to the Holy Land, it is said that a wealthy senator of that city, Travisini by name, whilst luxuriously reclining on his bed of down, was informed by an angel that the servant of God was lying upon the hard stones under the portico of his palace. Whereupon the senator immediately arose, and went to the door, where he found Ignatius.

[14] Negroni expounds the word _societas_ “quasi dicas cohortem aut centuriam quæ ad pugnam cum hostibus spiritualibus conserendam conscripta est.”

[15] Hel. _Hist. des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil._ tome vii. p. 469.

[16] Fra Paolo Sarpi, _History of the Council of Trent_, p. 118.

[17] These famous Constitutions were composed by Loyola in the Spanish language. They were not at first the perfect system we now find them; and it was not till about the year 1552 that, after many alterations and improvements adapting them to the necessities of the times, they assumed their ultimate form. They were translated into Latin by the Jesuit Polancus, and printed in the college of the Society at Rome in 1558. They were jealously kept secret, the greater part of the Jesuits themselves knowing only extracts from them. They were never produced to the light until 1761, when they were published by order of the French parliament, in the famous process of Father Lavallette.

[18] We beg to explain the sense in which we use the word _Catholic_. We don’t mean that the Christians of the Roman persuasion have an exclusive right to it. We only maintain to them the current denomination, as all other historians do, to prevent confusion.

[19] _History of the Council of Trent_, by Paolo Sarpi, tome i. p. 47.

[20] _Const. Socie. Jesu_, pars i. cap i. § 3.

[21] _Const._ pars i. cap. ii. § 1.

[22] _Const._ pars i. cap. iv. § 6.

[23] _Const._ pars iii. cap. i. § 12.

[24] _Const._ pars iv. cap. x. § 5.

[25] _Const._ pars iii. cap. i. § 23.

[26] _Const._ pars vi. cap. i. § 1.

[27] _Const._ pars vi. cap. v. § 1.

[28] _Examen_, iv. § 11; and _Const._ pars iii. cap. i. § 7-9.

[29] After his entrance into the house of first probation, the Jesuit is not allowed either to receive or send away any letter which has not been previously read by his superior.

[30] _Const._ pars iii. cap. i. § 2, 3.

[31] Let not any English reader accuse me of inaccuracy on this point, upon the ground that Jesuits actually walk about the streets in this country _singly_, or even in disguise. They must take notice that every rule of the Constitution contains this clause—“Except the General order otherwise, for the greater glory of God, and the benefit of the Society.” Is it not “for the greater glory of God, and the benefit of the Society,” that the Jesuit, to escape suspicion, should go alone?—that he should be introduced into your family circle as a Protestant gentleman?—that he should, to gain your unsuspecting confidence, enact the part of your gay companion at theatres, concerts, and balls?—that he should converse with you upon religious matters, beginning always by cursing the Pope, &c.?

[32] _Const._ pars iii. cap. i, § 18.

[33] _Const._ pars i. cap. ii. § 13.

[34] Ibid. pars i. cap. iii. § 3-16.

[35] _Const._ pars v. cap. ii. § 7, 8.

[36] Ibid. pars iv. cap. xvi. § 3.

[37] _Const._ pars iv. cap. i. § 1, 6.

[38] _Const._ pars ii. cap. iii. § 5, 6, 8.

[39] In most monasteries, and more particularly in those of the Capuchins and Reformed (_Riformati_), there begins at Christmas a series of feasts, which continues till Lent. All sorts of games are played, the most splendid banquets are given, and in the small towns, above all, the refectory of the convent is the best place of amusement for the greater number of the inhabitants. At carnivals, two or three very magnificent entertainments take place, the board so profusely spread that one might imagine that Copia had here poured forth the whole contents of her horn. It must be remembered that these two orders live by alms. The sombre silence of the cloister is replaced by a confused sound of merrymaking, and its gloomy vaults now echo with other songs than those of the Psalmist. A ball enlivens and terminates the feast; and, to render it still more animated, and perhaps to shew how completely their vow of chastity has eradicated all their carnal appetite, some of the young monks appear coquettishly dressed in the garb of the fair sex, and begin the dance along with others transformed into gay cavaliers. To describe the scandalous scene which ensues would be but to disgust my readers. I will only say that I have myself often been a spectator at such saturnalia.

[40] _A Vincenzo Gioberti Fra Pellico della Compagnia di Gesù_, pp. 35, 36.

[41] _Examen_, iv. § 10-15.

[42] _Examen_, iv. § 17.

[43] _Const._ Pars v. cap. iv. § 4.

[44] _Const._ Pars v. cap. iv. § 2.

[45] _Const._ Pars ix. cap. iii. § 9.

[46] _Const._ Pars v. cap. iii. § 2-4.

[47] _Const._ Pars ix. cap. v. § 5.

[48] See my _History of the Pontificate of Pius IX._, p. 3.

[49] _Const._ Pars viii. cap. vi. § 6.

[50] _Const._ Pars ix. cap. iv. § 7.

[51] _Const._ Pars ix. cap. iii. § 14-19.

[52] Maffei, _Vita Ign._ p. 90.

[53] Maffei, _Vita Ign._ p. 90.

[54] _Bromato Vita di Paolo IV._ lib. vii. § 3.

[55] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 189. English translation.

[56] _Crétineau_, vol. i. p. 134.

[57] _Orland._ lib. iii. 48; _Crét._ vol. i. p. 134.

[58] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 136.

[59] Cumulatam peccatorum indulgentiam tribuebant.—_Orland._ lib. iii. sec. 59.

[60] Exceptiones immunitatesque, aut plane gratuitas aut ære permodico tenuoribus indugebant, &c.—_Ibid._ and _Crét._ vol. i. p. 140.

[61] _Steinmetz_, vol. i. p. 308.

[62] _Orl._ lib. iii. 60; _Crét._ vol. i. p. 141.

[63] _Helyot_, vol. vii. p. 491.

[64] _Helyot_, vol. vii. p. 491.

[65] _Const._ pars vi. cap. iii. § 7. To be a nun’s confessor was, and is still, deemed a high privilege. Before the Council of Trent, this privilege belonged to the order of St Francis, under whose rules most of the nuns also live. The conduct of these brothers and sisters was in the highest degree improper and scandalous. Although the Franciscans are now no longer the titular confessors of these nuns, nevertheless they are on the most friendly terms with one another; upon which friendships the Italians exercise their satirical and sarcastic wit. The confessors are now chosen by the respective bishops, who confer the honour upon their most faithful adherents, as a reward for their services. The rivalries of those sainted women, and their ingenious contrivances to engage the smile of their holy father, are notorious to every one who lives near a convent.

[66] _Helyot_, vol. iii. p. 492.

[67] _Orl._ lib. viii. § 6.

[68] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 284.

[69] _Orlan._ lib. viii. p. 43.

[70] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 285.

[71] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 290.

[72] _Orland._ lib. viii. 10.

[73] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 299.

[74] _Ibid._ p. 292. As this author generally quotes Orlandini and the other Jesuitical writers _verbatim_, we shall refer our readers to him, as it can much more easily be procured, and we shall only quote from the original when the translation is inaccurate.

[75] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 305.

[76] _Ibid._ p. 299.

[77] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 290.

[78] Our readers must not take the word parliament in the same signification it has in England. The parliament of France was composed of a body of magistrates, and formed the Supreme Court of Judicature, in which the princes of the blood had a seat; and which was sometimes presided over by the king. Every province had its parliament, but none exercised the same influence with that of Paris.

[79] _Crét._ vol. i. p. 320.

[80] This Postel was a rabbin converted to Catholicism. He was very learned, a graduate of the university, and held in high estimation by Francis I. and all his court. In 1545 he went to Rome to enter the Society of Gesù. This acquisition gave great joy to the Jesuits. Postel was very kindly received, and much flattered. He then went through the _Spiritual Exercises_; but this strange course of devotion affected his fervid imagination so much, that his faculties became impaired. He began to propound strange doctrines—to propose new rules for the Society; and, above all, would by no means obey the orders of Ignatius. Loyola having no longer any hold upon him, dismissed him, for which act of firmness Loyola’s panegyrist extols him to the skies.

[81] Crétineau, vol. i. p 334.

[82] Maffei, _Ignat. Vita_, p. 110.

[83] Idem, p. 109.

[84] Orland. lib. xiv. § 96, 97.

[85] The _Litteræ Annuæ Societatis Jesu_, from 1606 to 1614, fill eight volumes in 8vo; the _Lettres Edifiantes_, twenty-one volumes in 8vo, and so on.

[86] Bart. _Vita Ign._

[87] Bart. _Asia_, p. 31.

[88] For nearly two centuries, miracles and saints rarely occurred. It seems as if they were in a state of embryo, slumbering until an opportune season for their appearance should arrive. After the Reformation, however, it was deemed expedient that some new miracles and saints should come forth to prove the truth and the superiority of the Roman Catholic religion over the Protestant, which cannot boast of such testimonials. It was then that the images of the Virgin Mary again began to speak, laugh, weep—that the hair of the images on the crucifix grew—that they shed blood from their wooden sides—that the relics of saints acted as a charm to keep away diseases and misfortunes—and that new saints sprang into existence like mushrooms.

[89] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. ii. p. 231. English translation.

[90] Juvencius’ _Hist. Soc. Jesu_, pars v. tom. ii. lib. xviii.

[91] _Lettres Edifiantes_, tom. x. p. 324.

[92] Feringee was the name given by the Hindoos to the Portuguese.

[93] _Lettres Edif._ tom. xxi. p. 77.

[94] Idem, tom. x. pp. 243-245.

[95] _Lettres Edifiantes_, tom. xii. p. 107.

[96] Tom. xiii. p. 54.

[97] Tom. xiv. pp. 185, 186.

[98] _Letters on the State of Christianity in India_, p. 74. London, 1823.

[99] The Taly bears the image of the god Pollyar, supposed to preside over nuptial ceremonies. This most indecent idol was attached to a cord of 108 threads, and worn round their necks by the women ever after their marriage, as a wedding-ring.

[100] Crét. vol. v. p. 47. The italics are our own.

[101] The ashes of the cows’ dung are consecrated to the goddess Lakshini, and are supposed to cleanse from sin anybody to whom they are applied. The missionaries laid these ashes upon the altar near the crucifix (horrid to relate!) or the image of the Virgin, then consecrated and distributed them in the shape of little balls among their converts. This strange sort of Christians invoked a pagan divinity as often as they applied the dung to the body. Thus, when they rub it on the head or forehead, they say, _Neruchigurm netchada Shiven_—that is, may the god Shiva be within my head; when they rub it on the breast, they say, _Manu Rudren_—that is, may the god Rudren be in my breast; and so on.—See _Mémoires Historiques_, tom. iii. pp. 29, 30. Lucca, 1745.

[102] Crét. vol. v. p. 47.

[103] Crét. vol. v. p. 50.

[104] Father Norbert was a Capuchin missionary in India, who presented to Pope Benedict XIV. a book entitled, _Mémoires Historiques sur les Missions des Indes Orientales_. The work is illustrated with authentic documents. It was published with the approbation of all the ecclesiastical authorities, and never contradicted. Still, we will not quote Father Norbert as a proper authority, unless what he relates can be corroborated by other proofs.

[105] _Mém. Hist._ tom. prim. p. 142.

[106] The decree of the Inquisition of 1706, and his own of 1707, approving and confirming De Tournon’s decree.

[107] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. ii. p. 230. Eng. trans.

[108] _Ibid._

[109] Maigrot. We do not in the least wish to diminish the merit and the good intention of these two prelates. We even believe that M. de Tournon was an excellent man. We only wish to observe that both he and Maigrot were Frenchmen; that very many of the French prelates always evinced great enmity towards the Jesuits, and that this, perhaps, had some influence in stimulating their zeal for the purity of the Christian religion.

[110] “I, N., of the order N., or Society of Jesus, sent, designated as a missionary, to the kingdom or province of N. in the East Indies, by the Apostolic See, by my superiors, according to the powers granted to them by the Apostolic See, obeying the precept of our Holy Lord Pope Clement XII., in his Apostolic Letter, issued in the form of a brief, on the 13th day of May 1739, enjoining all the missionaries in the said missions to take an oath that they will faithfully observe the apostolic determination concerning the Malabar rites, according to the tenor of the Apostolic Letter in the form of a brief of the same our Holy Lord, dated 24th August 1734, and beginning _Compertum deploratumque_, well known to me by my reading the whole of that brief, promise that I will obey fully and faithfully, that I will observe it _exactly, entirely, absolutely, and inviolably_, and that I will fulfil it _without any tergiversation_; moreover, that I will instruct the Christians committed to my charge according to the tenor of the said brief, as well in my preaching as in my private ministrations, and especially the catechumens before they shall be baptized; and unless they promise that they will observe the said brief, with its determinations and prohibitions, that I will not baptize them; further, that I shall take care, with all possible zeal and diligence, that the ceremonies of the heathen be abolished, and these rites practised and retained by the Christians which the Catholic Church had piously decreed. But if at any time (which may God forbid!) I should oppose (_that brief_), either in whole or in part, so often do I declare and acknowledge myself subject to the penalties imposed by our Holy Lord, whether in the decree or in the Apostolic Letter, as above, concerning the taking of this oath, in like manner well known to me by reading the whole thereof. Thus, touching the Holy Gospels, I promise, vow, and swear, so may God help me, and these God’s Holy Gospels! Signed with my own hand—N.”

[111] I choose to speak of the procession held in this town, because I have there witnessed it myself.

[112] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 217. (Eng. trans.)

[113] The passage of Sacchini is most instructive upon this point. “Lainez,” says he, “did not write a single word on the matter; on the contrary, Bobadilla and Gorgodanuz did nothing else than issue pamphlet upon pamphlet, but it always happened by the Divine will (_Divino tamen consilio fiebat_), that their writings fell into the Vicar-General’s hand. Sometimes they (Lainez’s enemies) imprudently dropped the writings in the street, sometimes they negligently left them in their rooms unlocked, at other times they were delivered up to Lainez by the very persons to whom they were addressed.” In other words, Lainez, by the most ignoble proceedings and abject espionage, made himself master of his enemies’ writings; yet the Jesuit historian says “that it happened _Divino consilio_.” I wonder he does not add, _ad majorem Dei gloriam_.

[114] Sacch. lib. i. § 86.

[115] The act of making the sign of the cross is very significant. It is still the custom in Italy for the common people to do so on hearing of some great and unwonted crime, or of some extraordinary event.

[116] Crét. vol. i. p. 369.

[117] Crét. vol. i. p. 369.

[118] Paul IV. had hardly expired, when the Romans, highly incensed at the miseries caused by the war, and at the severities of the Inquisition, rose in a body, and with execrations and curses pulled down the statue which had been erected to him in the beginning of his Pontificate, broke into the Inquisition, and destroyed every thing in it.

[119] Crét. vol. i. p. 386.

[120] Sacch. lib. ii. § 131.

[121] I may here repeat what I have already said in one or two of my former publications. When we in 1848 took possession of the Convent of La Minerva, the seat of the Inquisition in Rome, we found among other things a packet of autograph letters, written by the priests of different countries, revealing various confessions to the Inquisitor. And it was a very curious thing that the first letter which fell into the hands of Mr Montecchi, a secretary of State, was from the capuchin of the State Prison, in which he was a prisoner a few years before. These letters, which are now out of our reach, are, however, safe, and will, I hope, be soon published.

[122] The Jesuits, in this circumstance, were again forbidden to leave Spain, or to send any money out of the country.

[123] Sacch. lib. v. § 107-10.

[124] Lainez, among other exploits, attacked with great violence the authority of the bishops, and would have had them to be mere tools in the hands of the Pope. He maintained on another occasion that, “as the slave possesses less authority than his master, in like manner the Council could not undertake a reformation upon the matter, the _annates_ being of Divine right.” Again, “as Jesus Christ has the power to dispense from all sorts of laws, the Pope, his vicar, has the same authority, SINCE THE JUDGE AND HIS LIEUTENANT HAVE THE SAME TRIBUNAL,” and other similar blasphemies. See Fra Paolo Sarpi upon the Congregations, 20th October 1562, and 16th June 1563.

[125] See the whole letter in Crét. vol. i. p. 294.

[126] Ranke, _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 286.

[127] See Crét. vol. ii. pp. 25 and following.

[128] Sacchini in Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, vol. ii. p. 80.

[129] Sacch. lib. ii. § 134.

[130] It is a remarkable fact that during the reign of the bigoted and persecuting Mary, the Jesuits did not make their appearance in England. Cardinal Pole, to whom they had made several applications to be permitted to establish themselves in Great Britain, always refused his consent. _Pole knew Loyola intimately._

[131] Crét. vol. i. p. 463.

[132] See the whole Bull in Crét. vol. ii. page 241.

[133] Crét. vol. ii. p. 269.

[134] Crét. vol. ii. p. 255.

[135] See Bartoli dell’ Ing. F. 101, 102, 104.

[136] Bartoli, _ibid._

[137] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 512. (Eng. trans.)

[138] Camden, A.D. 1580.

[139] It was secretly printed in Lady Stour’s house, and widely circulated.—See Crét. vol. ii. p. 272.

[140] Crét. vol. ii. p. 266.

[141] “Robertus Parsonius et Edmundus Campionus facultatem impetrârunt, a Gregorio XIII. in hæc verba. Petatur a summo Domino nostro explicatio Bullæ Declaratoriæ per Pium V. contra Elizabetham et ei adhærentes, quem Catholicis cupiunt intelligi hoc modo, ut obliget semper illam et hæreticos, Catholicos vero nullo modo rebus sic stantibus, sed tum demum quando publica ejusdem Bullæ executio fieri poterit. Has prædictas gratias concessit summus Pontifex Padri Roberto Parsonio et Edmundo Campionio, in Anglicam profecturis die 13 Aprilis 1580, præsente Padre Oliverio Manarco assistente.”—Camden, p. 464.

[142] It is well known that this adventurer, whom the Pope had made his chamberlain, when off the coast of Portugal with the fleet which had been equipped for the invasion, was persuaded by king Sebastian to accompany him in his enterprise against Morocco, where he perished along with the imprudent monarch of Portugal.

[143] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 324. (Eng. trans.)

[144] _Ann. Litt._ 1583.

[145] Bart. dell. Ing. F. 117.

[146] Hume, chap. xl. (A.D. 1579).

[147] See De Thou, A.D. 1587.

[148] Hume, chap. xli. (A.D. 1580).

[149] Crét. vol. ii. p. 280.

[150] Camden in Hume, chap. xli. (A.D. 1584).

[151] _State Trials_, vol. i. pp. 103, 104.

[152] Camden and De Thou.

[153] “La misère et le désespoir lui inspirèrent la pensée d’exécuter en réalité le crime imaginaire qu’il prétendait avoir médité avec les Jésuites.”

[154] Crét. vol. ii. p. 302.

[155] 22 Eliz. c. ii.

[156] Hume’s _Hist. of Eng._ chap. xlii.

[157] Crét. vol. ii. p. 309.

[158] Pasquier, _Catéchisme des Jésuites_, lib. iii. ch. 16.

[159] See Crét. vol. ii. p. 79.

[160] Crét. vol. ii. p. 78.

[161] These are some of the numberless privileges that the Jesuits had obtained from different Popes even within the first twenty-five years of their establishment:—They had the privilege of having a private chapel in every house or college, and to celebrate mass even in time of interdict; of absolving from every censure even in cases reserved for the Pope alone; of dispensing from religious vows, or from impediments to marriage; of conferring academical degrees which entitled the graduate to the honours and privileges conferred by the royal universities. They were exempted from tithes and from all other ecclesiastical contributions; and, above all, they were independent of the jurisdiction of the bishops.

[162] See Crét. vol. i. pp. 406, 407.

[163] Ibid.

[164] It is well known that in France the Roman Catholic clergymen are divided into ultramontane and Gallican; that the latter, under Louis Philippe, maintained their independence, and a sort of superiority; but that, under the rule of the pantheist Louis Napoleon, the ultramontane party, under the direction and patronage of the Jesuits, has obtained the ascendancy, which they exercise with a domineering spirit, and which is increasing every day.

[165] Father Maldonat propounded a doctrine, that no one remained in purgatory longer than ten years; and this, in order to assure the princes that, if the properties of monasteries or other benefices were given to the Jesuits, there would be no fear of their ancestors, in general the pious founders, roasting in purgatory—who knows how long?—if the benefices were appropriated to other uses than those for which they were intended.

[166] Crét. vol. ii. p. 388.

[167] Ibid. p. 392.

[168] This insurrection was called “the days of the barricades.”

[169] Crét. vol. ii, p. 414.

[170] This Council was so called because it was composed of sixteen members, representing the sixteen quarters of Paris; and it possessed the supreme authority _de facto_. In this council the Jesuits had the greatest influence, and one of them was a member of it.

[171] Crét. vol. ii. p. 404.

[172] It is asserted in a memoir of the Seigneur de Schomberg, that after the assassination of Guise, Sixtus, through his legate, suggested to Henry III. to name one of the Pope’s nephews as his successor to the throne of France. But we have too good an opinion of Sixtus’ sagacity to believe him guilty of such an extravagant project.

[173] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. ii. p. 25.

[174] How Elizabeth deplored this unprincipled act! “Ah, what grief,” she wrote to him after his apostasy, “and what regrets and what groans I have felt in my soul at the sound of such tidings as Morlaut has related! My God! is it possible that any human respect should efface the terror which Divine fear threateneth! Can we ever, by arguments of reason, expect a good consequence of actions so iniquitous? He who has supported and preserved you in mercy, can you imagine that He will permit you to advance unaided from on high to the greatest predicament? But it is dangerous to do evil in the hope that good will follow from it.—Your very faithful sister, Sire, after the old fashion—I have nothing to do with the new one—ELIZABETH.”[175]

[175] Bibl. du Roi MSS. de Colbert, apud Capefique, N. 251.

[176] Mezarai, _Abrégé Chronologique_ in the year 1576.

[177] Crétineau pretends that Gregory XIII., the father of all Christians, wishing rather to pacify than excite their passions, refused to comply with their request. But Ranke affirms that his approbation was given, and refers, as proof thereof, to a letter of Father Matthieu himself to the Duke of Nerves, reported in the fourth volume of _Capefique Réformé_.

[178] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 505.

[179] See, for the first part, Crét. vol. ii. p. 392. As he does not quote the latter part, see for it Pasquier, or _Histoire Générale de la Naissance et du Progrès de la Compagnie de Jésus_, vol. i. p. 180.

[180] Crét. vol. ii. p. 391.

[181] _Catéchisme des Jésuites_, lib. iii. ch. 2.

[182] Crét. vol. ii. p. 396.

[183] _Catéchisme des Jésuites_, lib. iii. ch. 6.

[184] Mezarai, _Abrégé Chronologique pour l’année 1594_. Henry was naturally generous, as all gallant men are. The only revenge he took upon the corpulent Duke of Mayenne, the chief of the League, and his rival for the throne after the death of Cardinal de Bourbon, was to take him by the arm, and whilst engaged in friendly conversation, walking at a very smart pace two or three times round the garden. Henry smiled when he had walked Mayenne fairly out of breath, and all the Duke’s injuries were forgotten.

[185] See De Thou, L’Etoile, and all the historians of the time.

[186] Mezarai, _Ab. Chr._ at the end of 1594.

[187] See Acts of the Parliament, or _D’Argentré Collect. Jud._ tom. ii. p. 524.

[188] In one of these writings, speaking of Henry IV., the Jesuit says:—“Shall we call him a Nero, a Sardanapalus of France, a fox of Bearn?” and further on, he declares, that “the crown of France could and ought to be transferred to another family; that Henry, although converted to the Catholic faith, would be treated too leniently, if a monk’s crown (tonsure) were given him in some convent to do penance; that if he cannot be deposed without war, then (said he) let us make war, and if we cannot make war, let him be killed.”—Crét. vol. ii. p. 435.

[189] See the whole of the inscription in the authors of the epoch, in the _Recueil des Pièces touchant l’Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésu_. Liège, 1716. A very instructive work.

[190] Sigismond, on the death of his father John, having proceeded from Poland to Upsala for the ceremony of his coronation, the estates peremptorily refused to render him homage, till he had solemnly sworn that the Augsburg Confession should be inculcated everywhere, alone and purely, whether in churches or schools. In this strait, the prince applied to Malaspina, the Pope’s nuncio, to know whether in conscience he could give such promise. The nuncio denied that he could. The king thereupon addressed himself to the Jesuits in his train, and what the nuncio had not dared, they took upon themselves to do. They declared that, in consideration of the necessity, and of the manifest danger in which the sovereign found himself, he might grant the heretics their demands without offence to God.—Ranke, _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. ii. pp. 147, 8.

[191] See Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 411.

[192] Ranke’s _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. i. pp. 415-417.

[193] Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, vol. i. p. 411.

[194] Ibid. p. 426.

[195] Ranke, vol. i. p. 422.

[196] Ranke, vol. i. p. 487.

[197] Ranke, _Hist. of the Popes_, vol. ii. p. 141.

[198] John, before his ascension to the throne, had been confined in strict captivity by his brother Eric. His wife, a Polish princess, the last descendant of the Jagellonica family, and an adherent of the Church of Rome, shared his imprisonment; the sad and gloomy hours of which were rendered less painful by the frequent visits of a Roman Catholic priest, who shewed them the greatest sympathy. It seems that this made some impression upon John, and rendered him favourable towards the Papists.

[199] Crét. vol. ii. p. 195.

[200] Ranke informs us that John, troubled by remorse for his brother’s assassination, was very anxious to receive absolution;—as if the word of a man could quiet the gnawings of conscience, that unsparing avenger of crime!

[201] Crét. vol. i. p. 449.

[202] Ibid.

[203] This fact is reported by all the Jesuit historians. We, however, have too good an opinion of the Waldenses not to suspect that the Jesuits, in order to deceive and impose upon the populace, had mixed among some few apostates a number of Roman Catholics who were willing to appear converted heretics.

[204] See also Crét. vol. iv. pp. 200, 201.

[205] Crét. vol iv. pp. 221, 222.

[206] _Const._ pars iv. chap. vi. § iii.

[207] To ascertain whether every one goes to the confessional every other Saturday, each boarder receives a card with his own name written on it, which he must deliver to his confessor, who gives it back to the rector. I may here mention that this method is also practised at Easter in the whole of the States of the Church, with all the inhabitants. If your card is not among those collected from the different confessors, it is evident that you have not fulfilled the precept, and if you do not give a satisfactory reason for it before the 26th of August, your name is fixed on the door of the parish church as that of a sacrilegious and infamous person. In the college of Senegallia, where I was educated, we were about two hundred boarders. Eight confessors were appointed to shrive. At sunset we descended to the chapel, whence we went in turn into the different schoolrooms to confess. The rooms were darkened, and the fathers were seated each in an arm chair, before a sort of confessional, through a grating of which our sins had to find their way to their pious ears. To such confessors as had been more severe on former occasions we usually played some tricks, such as putting a piece of raw garlic into our mouths, and pretending to be seized with a fit of coughing or sneezing, so that the poor confessor, who, in order to hear our confession well, was obliged to have his face close to the grating, had his olfactory nerves assailed by a puff of breath which was anything but agreeable. The penance, you may be sure, was double, but it never deterred us from playing similar pranks again, though we religiously fulfilled it. Sometimes we contrived to evade confession altogether in the following manner:—One who was going in to the confessional took with him the card of another along with his own. In kissing the hand of the confessor, after having confessed, he put into it one card, and slipped the other upon the table on which the father laid those he was receiving. After all was over, the servant brought in a light, and the confessor collected all the tickets he found on the table, and took them with him. Meanwhile, the person whose card had thus passed through the confessional without its owner was skulking in a closet or some other hiding-place, till, after the lapse of a sufficient length of time, he returned, as if he had religiously fulfilled the duty required. If you ask whether we believed in the efficacy of confession, I answer that we all firmly believed in it, and that in any illness or danger we would have earnestly asked for a confessor; only we did not like to go to it so often.

[208] Crét. vol. iv. p. 226.

[209] Gioberti is a Roman Catholic priest, ex-Premier of the King of Sardinia, and one of our greatest living philosophers. Though strictly orthodox, and even partial to the Papal authority, he has contributed more than any other man to give the last fatal blow to the Jesuits in Italy. His _Gesuita Moderno_ (Modern Jesuit), in which he lays bare all the iniquities of the fathers, has ruined their order for ever, in the estimation of the Italians, and effectually prevented them from again setting foot in Piedmont. I do not share his political or religious creed, but Italy must preserve the memory of the benefit he has conferred upon her on this point, and I, in particular, have to confess myself grateful to him for the advice and encouragement he has kindly given me in the compilation of this work.

[210] _Gesuita Moderno_, vol. iii. p. 226. Ed. di Losanna.

[211] Ranke, vol. ii. p. 92, in a note.

[212] _Mémoires de Sully_, tom. ii. ch. 3.

[213] See Ranke, vol. ii. p. 132.

[214] See Bellarmine in Ranke, vol. ii. pp. 116, 117.

[215] See l’Abbé Racine, _Abrégé de l’Histoire Ecclésiastique_, tom. x. p. 40. See also Fra Paolo Sarpi, who has immortalised his name as theologian of the Venetian Government, and historian of the contest.

[216] Crét. vol. iii. p. 180.

[217] Mariana was one of the most learned Spanish Jesuits, the personal enemy and the most fiery opponent of Acquaviva. He opposed to his utmost Molina’s doctrine on grace and free will, and propounded, as we have in part seen, the principle of the sovereignty of the people. He was held in great veneration among the Spaniards.

[218] See _Ratio Studiorum_. See also Ranke, vol. ii. p. 88.

[219] Serry, in Ranke, vol. ii. p. 88.

[220] _Arbitrii cum gratiæ donis concordia._

[221] See it exposed more at length in Ranke, vol. ii. p. 90.

[222] Serry.

[223] Ranke, vol. ii. p. 131.

[224] Crét. vol. ii. p. 176.

[225] Escobar compiled his work of _Moral Theology_ from twenty-four Jesuit authors, and in his preface he finds an analogy betwixt his book and “that in the Apocalypse which was sealed with seven seals,” and states that “Jesus presented it thus sealed to the four living creatures,” Suarez, Vasquez, Molina, and Valencia (four celebrated casuists), in presence of the four-and-twenty Jesuits, who represent the four-and-twenty elders.

[226] Crét. vol. iv. p. 58.

[227] Le monde s’était plaint depuis l’origine du Christianisme de l’austérité de certains precepts; les Jésuites venaient au secour de ces doléances, &c.—Crét. vol. iv. p. 50.

[228] Busembaum, apud Ranke, vol. ii. p. 394.

[229] Antony Escobar. _L. Theol. moralis vigenti-quatuor Societatis Jesu Doctoribus reseratus._ Ex. de pænitentiâ, ch. vii. N. 155. (Lugduni, 1656. Ed. Mus. Brit.)

[230] Thomas Tambourin. _Methodus Expeditæ Confessionis_, L. ii. ch. iii. § 3, N. 23. (Lugduni, 1659. Antverpiæ, 1656. Ed. Coll. Sion.)

[231] George de Rhodes. _Disput. Theologiæ Scholasticæ_, tom. i. Dis. xi. quæs. xi. sec. 1 and 2, and Dis. i. q. iii. sec. 2, § 3. (Lugduni, 1671.)

[232] In quoting Pascal, we make use of the translation of Dr M’Crie, to render the author’s meaning better than we could do. P. 107.

[233] John of Salas. _Disputationum R. P. Joannis de Salas, e Soc. Jesu, in primam secundæ D. Thomæ_, tom. i. tr. 8, sec. 7, 9, N. 74, 83. (Barcinone, 1607. Ed. Bibl. Arch. Cant. Lamb.)

[234] Gregory of Valentia. _Commentariorum Theologicorum_, tom. iii. dis. v. quæs. 7, punct. iv. (Lutetiæ Parisiorum, 1609. Ed. Coll. Sion).

[235] Thomas Sanchez. _Opus Morale in præcepta Decalogi_. L. ii. c. i. N. 6. (Venetiis, 1614. Antverpiæ, 1624. Ed. Coll. Sion.)

[236] Antony Escobar. _Universæ Theologiæ Moralis Receptiores absque lite Sententiæ, necnon Problematicæ Disquisitiones_, tom. i. L. ii. sect. i. de consc. c. 2. N. 18. (Lugduni, 1652. Ed. Bibl. Acad. Cant.)

[237] Simon de Lessau. _Propositions dictées dans le Collége des Jésuites d’Amiens._ De præcept. Decal. c. i. art. 4.

[238] Thomas Tamburin. _Explicatio Decalogi._ L. i. c. iii. § 4. N. 15. (Lugduni, 1659. Lugduni, 1665. Ed. Coll. Sion.)

[239] _Op. Mor._ p. 2.

[240] Ibid.

[241] Tr. 1. et. 2. n. 21.

[242] Pintereau in Pascal, pp. 205, 206.

[243] “These are the devotions presented at pp. 33, 59, 145, 156, 172, 258, 420 of the first edition.”

[244] Pascal, pp. 176-178.

[245] Gregory XV. and his nephew Cardinal Ludivisi, have two magnificent monuments in the Church of St Ignatius of the Collegio Romano, which church they had built and richly embellished for the Jesuits, and where they are buried.

[246] This man is famous for working miracles. He is said to have restored to life his dear companion, a pig, which had been stolen from him, after it had been killed and eaten, and its bones thrown into a furnace; just as Thor, the great Scandinavian god, restored to life his ram. Another great miracle is recorded of him by his panegyrist. Having been forbidden by his superior (St Antony was a monk) to work too many miracles, he one day found himself in a great perplexity. As he was passing through a street, he heard a poor mason, in the act of falling from a lofty building, call upon him by name for a miracle. The poor saint, not knowing what to do, had recourse to an expedient. “Stop a moment,” said he, to the falling man, “till I go for the permission of the Father Superior;” and the man waited suspended in the air till he returned with permission to work the miracle!

[247] This was the case with many, and, to mention one, with Father Zaccheria, the founder of the Barnabites, who had been a _beatifice_ for eighty-four years, had mass and prayers offered to him, but is at present merely Father Zaccheria.

[248] This congregation, as well as all the others, such as those of indulgences, of inquisition, &c., is composed of cardinals, bishops, prelates, and some few advocates. They form a sort of committee. There is a prefect and secretary; the others are called _consultori_, counsellors—the Pope is _de jure_ prefect of them all. Those of the Congregation of Rites are very glad when there is a canonisation. They are entitled, besides, to a portrait of the saint, which, if the saint take, they sell very dear, and to I know not how many pounds of chocolate.

[249] For Loyola’s sake we should have liked that one of the three first-class miracles, recorded in the bull of canonisation, should have been a little more supernatural, and a little more decent, perhaps. It is said in the bull, that a woman of Gandia, being dropsical, applied to the part affected the image of the saint, and was cured, _imagine dicti beati ventri admota_, &c.

[250] The saying of one of the descendants of Charles Borromeo has remained famous in Italy. After having paid all the expenses of the canonisation, he turned to his family and said, “Be always good Christians, my dear children, but never saints; one other saint, and we are ruined for ever.”

[251] Vol. iii. p. 471.

[252] S. i. c. iii. p. 64.

[253] S. iii. p. 401.

[254] Ibid. 402.

[255] Roman Catholics consider it their duty to send children to the confessional at the early age of seven years; and nine out of ten hear for the first time, from the confessor, words which awaken in their young and innocent minds lascivious and till then unknown desires.

[256] Crét. vol. iv. p. 366.

[257] This is the bull by which the Pope declared that the five propositions were to be found in Jansenius; and this gave rise to the celebrated distinction of _fact_ and _right_.

[258] The place was called Mont Louis, but was afterwards converted into a magnificent and beautiful cemetery, which now bears the name of Lachaise.

[259] A _lettre de cachet_ was an order bearing the king’s signature, generally requiring the arrest or exile of the person specified. Under the reign of the despotic Louis, _lettres de cachet_ were issued with scandalous profusion. The courtiers, the ministers, the king’s mistresses, asked, in exchange for a flattery or a caress, a _lettre de cachet_. Often the letter was blank, having only the king’s signature, and left to the person who had obtained it to fill it up with any name and any sort of punishment he pleased. Father Lachaise had always by him a quantity of letters of this last sort.

[260] In the first years of Louis’s reign that right resided in a commission composed of two prelates and a Jesuit; but Ferrier, Lachaise’s predecessor, possessed himself of the exclusive right, which ever after belonged to the king’s confessor.

[261] Letellier was accused of being the contriver of the following shameful deception. In 1690, during a dispute, M. de Ligny, Professor of Moral Philosophy at the Royal College of Douay, fell out with Father Beckman, a Jesuit professor. Drawn to extremities in the argument, he menaced his opponent with revenge, saying, _Ego te flagellabo_—“I will give you a whipping.” Fifteen days after, Ligny received a letter under the false signature of Antoine A——; that is, Antoine Arnauld, the famous Jansenist, with an address for the expected answer. Now, the professor, flattered by the honour of receiving a letter from so famous a man as Arnauld, replied to the letter, and continued the correspondence—so that at last the impostor, under the name of Arnauld, drew from Ligny the names of those who opposed the Jesuits, all of them doctors and professors in theology. The impostor thereupon began and continued a correspondence with these doctors, who supposed they were writing to the true Arnauld, the staunch opponent of Jesuit doctrine. Ligny even begged the invisible Arnauld to be his spiritual director, and sent him a general confession of the state of his conscience. Thereupon he was induced to leave his chair, his benefice, and to send all his papers to the impostor, whilst he set out by the same command to a place appointed, which was Paris. He went to St Magloire, but found no Arnauld; proceeded from place to place, until at last the simple Fleming found that he was duped. Meanwhile, however, all the professors before alluded to were denounced by the Jesuit Letellier, and exiled to various towns in France; and Ligny himself was sent to Tours. Meanwhile, the Jesuit published a letter directed to a doctor of Douay, under the title of _Secrets of the party of M. Arnauld lately discovered_. Then Arnauld, in his place of exile, discovering the cheat, published a first and second complaint, and a third, concluding one in answer to the Jesuit who had replied to his second. Every one was indignant, and even Louis XIV. himself. But the Jesuits assured him that they were innocent of the plot; and having obtained forgiveness for a supposed contriver, Tournelay, a doctor whom the Jesuits had named professor in the place of the expelled Gilbert, confessed that he had himself played the part of the false Arnauld, and the Jesuits were by this imposture exculpated from this act of perfidy. In the _Gazette_ of Rotterdam, 1692, it is said, “But little esteem was felt for him (Tournelay) since it was discovered that he consented to pass for the father of the false Arnauld, to exculpate the Jesuits, and above all, author de Vaudripont, the man who had answered Arnauld’s complaint, and who was supposed to act by Letellier’s inspiration.”

[262] See _Edinburgh Review_, vol. lxxiii. p. 361.

[263] Crét. vol. iii. p. 356.

[264] Ibid. p. 363.

[265] Crét. vol, iii. p. 362.

[266] Ibid. p. 363.

[267] Crét. vol. iii. p. 179.

[268] Ibid. p. 388.

[269] Ibid. pp. 371, 372.

[270] Crét. vol. iii. p. 375.

[271] This proclamation was the decree by which the bigoted Ferdinand II., with revolting injustice, dispossessed legitimate holders of property which had belonged to religious communities, but which in great part had been allotted more than a hundred years before to those monks and priests who had embraced Protestantism, and which, passing through many hands to the persons then in possession, constituted the most legitimate property.

[272] Crét. vol. iii. p. 390.

[273] Krasinski’s _Lectures on Slavonia_, p. 321.

[274] Ranke’s _History of the Popes_, vol. ii. p. 161.

[275] Literæ Academiæ Cracoviensis ad Academiam Lovaniensem, 2 July 1627.

[276] Ranke, vol. ii. p. 362.

[277] This Bellarmine, as is known to many of our readers, was a famous Jesuit, a cardinal, and one of the most fanatic and bigoted in the order, celebrated above all for exalting the Papal authority above every other earthly power. He is the author of a catechism, which is still taught over all Italy, under the name of _La Dottrina Cristiana de Bellarmino_. He was very learned, and appears not to have been a bad man, as regards his outward conduct.

[278] Jardine is, perhaps, the most impartial guide to follow in inquiring into this tragical event.