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THE JESUITS,
AS THEY WERE AND ARE.
THE JESUITS,
AS THEY WERE AND ARE
BY EDWARD DULLER, -
S*
d 6
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY MRS. STANLEY CARR;
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY SIR CULLING EARDLEY SMITH, BART.
SEELEY, BURNSIDE, AND SEELEY,
FLEET STREET, LONDON.
MDCCCXLV.
BOSTON COL !
3X
J> PS 1 3
B offish i
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7
INTRODUCTION.
The Jesuits are to be found everywhere.
There are countries where the mendicant orders
are unknown, but where is the land untrodden
by a Jesuit foot ?
Other orders come into contact with parti-
cular grades of society. The Benedictines oifer
asylums of literary ease to the noble classes.
The Franciscans and Capuchins circulate among
the lowest orders. The Jesuits penetrate into all.
Other bodies in the Romanist community have
specific functions to which they are confined.
The parochial priesthood is limited to its parishes.
There are brotherhoods for education. The
Dominicans, as ' the order of preachers/ are
the hereditary foes of heresy.* Missions to
* As Inquisitors, the Dominican functions continue onh' at
Rome. There exists a papal coin struck in their honour as
' domini canes ' — the noble hounds of heretics. The device is, a
dog with a lighted torch in his mouth, traversing a globe ; the
motto—" What will I, if it be already kindled ? "
IV INTRODUCTION.
Infidels are conducted by the congregation ( De
Propaganda fide/ Papal diplomacy is conducted
by Cardinals and Monsignori. But the Jesuits
are limited to no enclosure. A Jesuit may be
located in any parish by his general, — his con-
fessional is immediately frequented, and that of
the priest half deserted. The Jesuits are the
educators of Romish Europe. Their schools at
Fribourg alone educate, as genuine Romanists,
nobles from all parts of the continent. The
French clergy are trained by them through the
seminaries. The preachers who collect the
greatest crowds in Italy, to hear heresy denounced,
and ' the church ' exalted, are Jesuits. The
Jesuit general is on the weekly board of the In-
quisition. They are the confessors of the College
De Propaganda fide already, and are on the eve
of possessing its entire direction ; they founded
the Paraguay mission — they explored China —
they led the assault on Tahiti. In papal diplo-
macy they are invisible, but not inactive. It is
prosecuted in their interests, and often under
their controul. They have frustrated the en-
deavours of the French Chambers to suppress
Jesuitism in France. They have installed them-
selves in Lucerne at a great expense of human
INTRODUCTION. V
life, in opposition to the wishes of the great ca-
binets of Europe. They have forced themselves
back into Venice in 1844, notwithstanding Aus-
trian jealousy.
The country of the Jesuit is the world. He
is a cosmopolite in the worst sense, for he is a
patriot nowhere. The object of his education is
to eradicate family and national affections. His
motto is to be ' sicut cadaver/ — a living mecha-
nism.* His politics depend on local expediency,
for he has no opinions. He instils radicalism
into Irish demagogues, and despotism into Sar-
dinian princes. He has science for the educated
and fanaticism for the vulgar. Accompany a
polished Jesuit professor through the Roman
Catacombs, and you will see how the aristocracy
of IJurope are attracted to Romanism. Read the
' miracles of God/ and you will understand how
the peasantry of Italy are plunged in super-
stition, f
In short, what Rome is to the world, Jesuitism
is to Rome. The secret of Rome, as shewn by
* Pascal's " Provinciales " passim.
+ Maraviglie di Dio, published at the Jesuit press in Rome, 1841 .
It is astonishing that there should exist a class"" even in Itrly,
capable of believing these lying legends.
VI INTRODUCTION.
Mr. Macaulay, in his captivatipg article on
Rankers History of the Popes,* is, that she adapts
herself to all men. She makes but one condition,
that they shall be her's. She engages all tastes
and classes in her various orders, and employs
them all in congenial spheres of labour. Jesu-
itism has in like manner pervaded all departments
of Romish effort, and kindled them into new
life. Jesuitism is the heart of Rome.
The following volume will make the general
reader acquainted with the important position
which the order of Loyola occupies in the papal
system. It will be seen that it was created to be
the antagonist of the Reformation. Suppressed
by Clement XIV. in 1773, at the unanimous
desire of the Romanist cabinets of Europe, it
was revived by Pius VII. in 1814, as the only
safeguard of the papacy. Cardinal Gonsalvi,
the prime minister of the pope at that time, was
at least as liberal-minded a man as pope Ganga-
nelli, by w T hom the Jesuits were suppressed. We
can therefore only conclude that he restored them
as a last resource. We have thus the testimony
of the papacy itself at various periods, of the
value which it attributes to Jesuitism, as a living,
* Edinburgh Review.
INTRODUCTION. Vli
stirring, energetic principle, pervading the inert
mass of a decrepit system, and binding the ex-
tremities to one another and to the common
centre.
We are less anxious by this introduction to
foster the popular repugnance to Jesuitism, than
to suggest the necessity of an analogous, but
holier movement in the Protestant Church. If
our Lord proposed the conduct of the unjust
steward as an example to His disciples, we may
be warranted in copying from the Jesuits such
features of character as are consistent with Christ-
ian integrity. Let the children of light imitate
for once the wisdom of the children of the world !
An enthusiastic mind in the sixteenth century
conceived and executed a plan which has con-
solidated Romanism and arrested its fall for three
hundred years. Might not a few earnest Christ-
ians in the nineteenth century devise a scheme
to harmonise the parts and combine the energies
of the Evangelical Church ?
Dominicans and Franciscans, Gallicans and
Ultramontanes, form part of the same con-
federacy ; while Lutherans and Calvinists, Angli-
cans and Dissenters, are rather known to the
world as controversial combatants than as friendly
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
sections of the same unearthly army. Where are
the evangelical minds with the same enthusiasm
for the concentration of the true Church, that
Loyola and Xavier and Lainez possessed for the
extension of the false one ! A few would be suf-
ficient at first. Ten men who would give up
time, talents, property, and home, to bring about
an understanding between distant countries and
divided parties and alienated individuals, might
soon make themselves felt in the world. What a
blessed Order would that be — the peacemakers of
the Church !
The principle upon which such a movement
might proceed, is felt by every sound Christian.
There is a consciousness in every orthodox breast
that Bickersteth * and Bunting — Cox and Angell
James — Muir and Candlish — Merle d ' Aubigne
and Monod — Tholuck and Czerski, and all
congregations to which the common principles of
these men are habitually proclaimed, constitute
parts of the genuine Church of Jesus Christ.
What appears to be needed is the bringing out
into bold relief of that germ of unity which re-
* We trust we shall be pardoned for citing cotemporary names.
In no other way could we give the reader a vivid idea of the com-
bination we desire.
INTRODUCTION. IX
sides in the hearts, and is developed in the min-
istrations, of these and similar individuals.
Might not these common principles, embodied in
simple language, be held up to the world as the
standard round which the Church of Christ
should rally ; and then might there not be
a mission of a few single-minded, humble,
pious but resolute minds, to traverse Christendom
and to penetrate among all parties, in order to
form a spiritual league among all who hold the
head ? Every minister and every congregation
holding essential truth, might be invited, with-
out severing ecclesiastical relations, to enrol
themselves into a confederacy, exercising no
authority and demanding neither ritual nor dis-
ciplinary conformity, but solely pledged to an
affectionate, a more than masonic, recognition of,
and brotherhood with, each other. Such a league,
based upon the sympathy of free hearts — the
only union worthy of that God who made us free
agents, and of that Saviour who " abolished in
his flesh the enmity, even the law of command-
ments contained in ordinances " — such a league
would exhibit by contrast, the meagre and
mechanical nature of that bond which unites the
adherents of an organised priesthood in Ireland
X INTRODUCTION.
and Germany, Canada and the valley of the Mis-
sissippi, Brazil and Hungary.
We therefore propose to our readers as a topic
for thought, while perusing the history of the
Jesuits, whether an analogous association be not
practicable in the Evangelical Church — an Order
of peacemakers ?
We recommend the following volume as a brief
and popular statement of facts and principles con-
nected with Jesuitism. We do not make our-
selves responsible for every statement in it ; but
while it supplies information which is greatly
needed, the reader will agree with us that it does
honour to the patriotic German hand by which it
was compiled, and to the elegant English pen to
which the translation is due.
C. E. S.
Bedwell Park,
September 2, 1845.
PREFACE,
ADDRESSED TO THE PRINCES AND PEOPLE OF
GERMANY.
At the same time as, by means of the refor-
mation, the enormous power of the papacy was
shaken, long suppressed intellectual freedom res-
tored, and the dignity of human nature vindi-
cated, at that very time, a spiritual association,
calling itself the society of Jesus, or the Jesuit
order, was instituted, whose avowed objects were,
to support the authority of the pope, to extend
the Roman Catholic religion, to annihilate mental
freedom, and to strangle in its birth the consci-
ousness of the dignity of human nature. , In 1840,
exactly three centuries had elapsed, since its
Xll PREFACE.
being solemnly constituted by the pope. For three
centuries, then, it has maintained its conflict with
protestantism ; a contest of darkness against light,
of falsehood against truth, of tyranny against
freedom, such as never before was recorded in
the world's annals ! A contest not only still
existing in our day, but carried on with even
increased energy, boldness, and artifice, partly
by means of its ghostly members, partly by their
numerous lay allies, who put in requisition both
open force and the most seductive wiles, for the
spread of the order, in protestant as well as
Catholic countries. The struggle will cease only
with the existence of the order ; and truly the
dangers resulting from it, are, if possible, greater
now than ever. Hundreds of thousands have
been made wretched, torrents of human blood
have been shed by it, and whole nations, endow-
ed with the finest capabilities, checked in their
moral and intellectual developement, all under
the pretence " of promoting the glory of God" —
blotting with this blasphemous mockery every
page of the world's history since the commence-
ment of the order ! But how could it possibly
reach to such a height of power ? or, more won-
derful still, how contrive to maintain it in our
PREFACE. Xlll
days ? are questions naturally put by the friend
of humanity ; and it well behoves all, but chiefly
you, my countrymen, to learn their solution, for
the Reformation had its rise in the deepest
essence of the German heart, and the Jesuits
aim at its extinction, thus combating your noblest
characteristics, your love of freedom, good
faith, and desire after truth ; they undermine
your unity and civil institutions, and threaten
your independence, in refusing to acknowledge the
sacred inviolability of the majesty of Government.
Awake, then, my noble compatriots, and learn to
know your enemies, and how to defend yourselves
from their snares! You have the most urgent
reason, to be on your guard, and to call up your
manly energy, your most untiring vigilance,
against the destroyers at once of your morality,
and your independence.
Not one foot of your sacred native soil should
your credulity yield to them, else be sure they will
soon contrive to engross the whole in their net,
to rule, and to desecrate it ! Now is the time
for prince and people to cleave closely to each
other, so that each may see and feel, that ' what-
ever brings danger to the one, must threaten the
safety of the other. ' To awaken and confirm this
XIV PREFACE.
conviction, by every means in his power, is the
sacred duty of every friend to his country ; and
with this aim, the following little work has been
penned, not for the learned, but for the million.
It pretends to no research, no new discoveries,
it contains only old, but important truths, which
may perhaps reach the heart, as coming warm
from the heart of one, who cherishes the truest
affection for his countrymen, who is proud to
bear the German name, and resolved, even to
his last breath to promote, as much as in him
lies, confidence and unity, truth and morality
among the people ; praying, that an intimate
mutual adherence of prince and people, stayed
on loyalty and equity, may ever remain the
foundations of German states, over which may
the sun of a lofty futurity be yet destined to
arise !
EDWARD DULLER.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE
I. The Institution of the Order of
Jesuits 1
II. The increase of the Jesuit order . 21
III. The constitution, government, and
MORAL CODE OF THE JESUITS . . 41
IV. Shewing how the Jesuits, after long
and ineffectual struggles, at
length established their power
in France and fearfully abused
it 61
V. How the Jesuits made their way
into Switzerland, and sought to
establish their power in the
Netherlands, England, and the
Northern states of Europe . . 102
XVI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE
VI. What does Germany owe to the
Jesuits? 116
VII. The Jesuits in Spain and Portugal,
together with their asiatic and
American Missions .... 127
VIII. The suppression op the Order . . 139
IX. The reestablishment of the Order,
AND ITS PRESENT RESULTS . . 140
CHAPTER I.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
The founder of the Jesuit order was a Spanish
nobleman, named Inigo, or Ignatius de Loyola,
the son of Don Bertram, lord of Loyola and
Ogne, and of Donna Mariana Saez de Licona
and Valda. Ignatius, the youngest of eight
sons, was born in 1491, in the castle of Loyola,
in the province of Guipuzcoa, and was early
admitted as a page into the court of Ferdinand,
surnamed the Catholic. This luxurious and
easy life, though at first agreeable to his boyish
taste, lost its attractions in proportion as the
developement of his bold and ambitious spirit
led him to view with contempt the frivolous and
idle occupations of a courtier ; and after having
attained to a competent knowledge of the service
B
2 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
of arms, in the household of his relative, the
Duke de Najera, he hastened to seek knightly
fame in the feats of actual warfare.
The first instance we find recorded of his mar-
tial prowess occurred at the siege of Pampelune
by the French in 1521, when the garrison of
which Loyola made one, were so hard pressed by
the besieging force as to entertain thoughts of
capitulating : but the brave Ignatius spurned
the timid proposal, and exclaiming with indig-
nation to his less resolute comrades, l Fie upon
the cowardice which can yield at the first sight
of danger, ' withdrew into the citadel with a
handful of kindred spirits, resolved to defend it
with the last drop of their blood. The French,
having at length reduced the citadel to the last
extremity by famine, attempted to take it by
storm. Loyola, at the head of his small band,
made a desperate sortie and fought sword in
hand, with indomitable bravery, until, being
desperately wounded by a musket shot in the leg,
he sunk senseless to the ground : on seeing
which, his companions, giving up all for lost,
surrendered the citadel to the French, who, res-
pecting the heroism displayed by Loyola, in the
conflict, had him removed from the field, and
THE INSTITUTION. 3
carefully tended in Panipelune, until he could
be conveyed to the castle of his ancestors, there
to await the healing of his wound. A painful
operation was found necessary, which he bore
with characteristic firmness, not suffering a single
groan to escape his lips : but less endurable to
his restless spirit was the slow healing of the
wound; and while unable to walk, or even to
stand, he longed with irrepressible ardour for
the excitement of action. Fettered to a sick bed,
and tortured with the apprehension of being, by
incurable lameness, debarred for ever from that
knightly career, for which alone life seemed to
him worth having, books were his only resource ;
and being unable to procure a supply of those
romances of chivalry, with which his imagina-
tion had in early life been fired, and for which,
he now pined, he was fain to seek amusement
and interest in such as were within his reach ;
and these consisted solely in the life of the Sa-
viour, and legends, called, " The Flowers of the
Saints," abundantly adorned with strange ad-
ventures and miracles. These afforded welcome
food to his naturally ardent imagination, and he
read with an eager and ever-increasing delight,
the stirring tale of persecutions endured by
b 2
4 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
Christian martyrs, and the strange, self-inflicted
penances and mortifications of monks and
hermits, until his mind became fully imbued with a
similar spirit. His high native courage and iron
endurance, were attracted by the exhibition of kin-
dred qualities in the martyrs ; the endless reward
obtained by monks and hermits in the reverence of
all Christendom, fired his ambition ; while the gra-
phic descriptions of satanic temptations and of
heavenly visions, of which these pious sufferers
had been made partakers, excited his nerves (by
pain and sickness greatly weakened) to the
highest pitch j and all served to produce in his
mind a glowing desire to imitate their high ex-
amples. Every faculty of his soul became ab-
sorbed by this one thought, and all his powers
of energy and will were fastened upon this con-
suming desire ; hence his religious excitement
soon degenerated into a fanaticism which so fully
mastered his reason, that he one night fancied
himself entranced, and that Mary, the queen of
heaven, appeared to him in bodily form ; upon
which he elected her " lady of his heart/' and
swore to be her champion upon earth even unto
death. His first step towards fulfilling this re-
solution was a solemn vow, bv which he bound
THE INSTITUTION. 5
himself to renounce the world, and, so soon as
he should be fully recovered, to assume the cha-
racter and office of a spiritual knight, devoted
to the conversion of mankind, in which his first
expedition should be directed to Jerusalem, for
the purpose of converting the Mahometans.
Being now in some degree restored to health,
Loyola's first care, after leaving his father's castle,
was to visit a wonder-working and highly re-
verenced picture of the Virgin, preserved in the
monastery of Montserrat, which is situated about
a day's journey from Barcelona, on a lofty
mountain ridge, surrounded by high and preci-
pitous cliffs. Here, in accordance with the laws
of chivalry, Loyola hung up his arms before the
picture, and spent the night in watching them.
Thence he proceeded to Barcelona, with the in-
tention of there embarking for the Holy Land ;
but the plague having just then broken out, he
was compelled to defer, without by any means
relinquishing, the execution of his design, and
he withdrew for a time to Manresa, there, in
imitation of the saints, to lead a life of strict
penance ; and by total renunciation of the world,
to render himself worthy of his future, high vo-
cation. He begged his bread from door to door,
6 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
tended the sick in the hospitals, mortified his
body through fasting and scourging, and prided
himself on the depth of his humility ! Wrapped
in sordid rags, an iron chain and prickly girdle
pressing on his naked body, covered with filth,
with uncombed hair, and untrimmed nails, wan-
dered about the man who, in days of yore, had
contended with silk-clad nobles for the favour of
the fair, or, girt in burnished mail, had strode
foremost in the battle field, ever emulous of the
post of danger and of glory ! A dark mountain
cave in the vicinity of Manresa, was long his
resort, and at its entrance he was once found,
exhausted by fasting and ceaseless mortifications,
so as to be nearly expiring ; he was brought to
Manresa and by care restored, but he una-
voidably suffered from such a mode of life both
in body and mind ; so that, when occasionally the
recurrence of a lucid interval caused him to doubt
the propriety of such a strange application of
his energetic faculties, he repelled the salutary
thought as a suggestion of the devil, who envied
him his sanctity ! The natural consequence was,
that, with his increased bodily weakness came an
increased frequency of his heavenly visions, while
these creations of his overwrought imagination,
THE INSTITUTION. 7
served but to strengthen his delusion ; so that
he at last came to believe he had once seen, in
the sacred host, the incarnate God in bodily
shape, and at another, that the blessed Trinity
became visible to him !
Amid such illusive fancies, in which not only
an excited imagination, but likewise a fervent
aspiration and striving of his mind after a more
intimate knowledge of the mysteries of religion,
and a longing to force himself into nearer com-
munion with God, are perceptible, Ignatius de
Loyola spent nearly a year in Manresa, and then
once more set out for Barcelona, where, in 1523,
wholly destitute of money, but filled with the
firmest confidence in God, he embarked in a ship,
which after a five days' voyage landed him at
Gaeto on the Italian coast. From this place, pale
and infirm, he journeyed on towards Venice, where
he at length succeeded in carrying out his long
cherished design of setting sail for Palestine.
Having arrived in safety, he proceeded, burn-
ing with zeal for the conversion of the Ma-
hometans, to Jerusalem ; but the provincial of the
Franciscan monastery admonished him to desist
from the attempt, and when remonstrance availed
not, threatened him with excommunication.
8 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
Under these circumstances, Loyola was forced
to return to Europe, without being able to
give his adventurous design of converting the
infidel so much as a fair trial. He relanded at
Barcelona in 1524, with unsubdued courage ;
and the mockery with which he was assailed,
served but to goad on his enthusiastic zeal, and
to strengthen his resolve to fight as champion of
the one saving faith, as well as, in his character
of bold knight and true, to win everywhere
souls to the allegiance of his " high lady, Mary,
the queen of heaven." No longer, however, li-
miting his views to infidels, he determined
thenceforth to pursue his vocation in the heart
of Christendom itself; for the conversion of he-
retics now drew his attention, as being no less
meritorious than that of unbelievers. But, cou-
rageous as he was, Loyola felt, that, for the
attainment of success in this mental warfare, a
learned education was indispensable ; of this he
was wholly destitute ; and, although already in
his thirty-fourth year, he did not hesitate to com-
mence forthwith the reparation of this defect,
and to lay, late as it was, that foundation which
had been neglected in his youth. Nor did he
merely conceive, — he also carried out this resolve,
THE INSTITUTION. 9
with a perseverance, which bore testimony to his
great energy of character, and with a self-de-
nial, of which enthusiasm alone is capable.
The once gallant soldier might be seen seated
among the school-boys of Barcelona, learning
Latin, which at first cost him much effort ; yet two
years after, in 1526, he removed to the Univer-
sity of Alcala for the study of Theology. There
he began likewise to preach, and to encourage
women to devote themselves to the holy life of the
convent ; as well as, in common with all enthu-
siasts, to seek to make disciples to his doctrines :
nor is this wonderful, for such as feel convinced
that the mode of faith in which they feel happy
is the only true road to happiness, cannot but
strive to induce all mankind to adopt it.
Loyola's disciples wore, like himself, grey frieze
coats, begged their daily bread, and commenced,
under his guidance, what they termed ' spiritual ex-
ercises :' while he regarded himself no less great as
their master, than when formerly heading his
squadrons in the field ; for the highest aim of his
spiritual ambition was to become the founder
of a new religious order. But these novel
proceedings of Loyola and his followers, soon at-
tracted the notice of the Inquisition ; they had
10 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
him arrested, and he obtained his freedom only
on condition of abstaining from preaching and
proselytizing. The same fate followed him in Sa-
lamanca, in consequence of which he was deserted
by his disciples ; but all impediments had no other
effect on his powerful mind, than the beneficial
one of sharpening his powers of understanding,
and at the same time helping to throw off the
fetters of his predominating fancy. In short, the
dusky cloud of his fanaticism was by degrees
dispersed, but the flame of his religious enthu-
siasm burned on, and illumined his whole charac-
ter : his resolution was formed, and with deter-
mined purpose, he left his native land and betook
himself to Paris in 1528.
There bis penances, attempts at proselytism, and
studies, were persevered in, despite the extremest
poverty, and various threatened humiliations, with
incredible patience, until, in 1532, he received
the degree of bachelor, and two years later, that
of master of philosophy. But never once during
all this time had he lost sight of his highest aim,
the founding of a religious order, and no misfor-
tune could either appal or lead him aside from it.
His prudence and perseverance obtained for
him at length the concurrence and cooperation of
THE INSTITUTION. 11
several men of distinguished abilities : viz. Peter
Faber or Lefevre, (from Savoy) Franciscus Javier
of Navarre, Jacob Lainez, Alfonso Salmeron,
Nicolas Bobadilla (all three Spaniards) and Simon
Rodriguez, a Portuguese. Of these Lefevre was
the most pious, Franciscus Xavier the most ener-
getic, and Jacob Lainez the most talented. Ac-
companied by these companions, whose number
was speedily increased by the accession of three
others, Claudius Le Jay, John Codurio, and Pas-
casius Broet, Ignatius Loyola descended on the
15th of August, 1534, into the subterranean chapel
of the church of Montmartre at Paris. The day
was selected as being the festival of the ascension
of the Virgin, and the place, because that chapel
was specially dedicated to her, that queen of saints
and angels, from whom Loyola believed himself
to have received the call to his mission. In this
chosen retreat, Lefevre, who was an ordained
priest, read mass and dispensed the Eucharist to
his friends, on receiving which all present took
upon themselves the following solemn vow. f We
will renounce the world, and, so soon as our
studies are completed, proceed to Jerusalem to
convert the Infidels ; but, should we be unable to
accomplish this undertaking within one year from
12 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
this date, we will then cast ourselves at the feet
of the Holy Father in Rome, and tender to him
our spiritual services, in order that he may send
us, his devoted servants, wherever, and use us to
whatever purpose, may to him seem good/
Shortly after this event Loyola undertook a
journey into Spain, partly in obedience to the
advice of his physician for the purpose of restor-
ing his health, undermined by fasting and casti-
gation, and partly to arrange various affairs for
his allied brethren Xavier, Lainez, and Salmeron.
But, before separating from his associates, they
reciprocally pledged themselves to assemble in
Venice in the beginning of 1537, in order to put
their concerted plans in operation. The meeting
took place accordingly, and Loyola found himself
not only reassociated with the friends he had left,
but able to welcome new members who had
since joined them. They continued for some
time engaged in attending the sick in the hospi-
tals of Venice and in preaching to the people ;
but, rinding himself at last compelled to relinquish
his long-cherished plan of a journey to Jerusalem
for the conversion of the Infidels, on account of
the breaking out of hostilities between the Re-
public of Venice and the Turks, Loyola assembled
THE INSTITUTION. 13
his disciples at Vicenza, and declared to them his
conviction, that God had frustrated their design
of going to Jerusalem, for the very purpose that
they might fulfil the other half of their vow, and
devote themselves to the service of the Holy Ro-
man Father j ' For,' said he, ' the Roman Catholic
Church is sorely assaulted in these mischievous
times by heretics, and has great need of zealous
soldiers/ Upon which the brethren determined
that Loyola, accompanied by the pious Lefevre,
and the judicious Lainez, should proceed at once
to Rome and offer their services to the Pope,
while the others should disperse themselves
among the Spanish universities, and try to gain
over members to their association.
Accordingly Loyola, after having been conse-
crated priest in Venice, set out with Lefevre and
Lainez for Rome ; and though, as they approached
1 the eternal city,' both his companions began to
lose courage, Loyola's quailed not. Possessed with
the fullest conviction that his scheme must suc-
ceed, he turned into a solitary chapel before the
gates of Rome and engaged in praj^er; during
which, falling into an extacy, he seemed to see God
the Father, and His only -begotten Son Jesus Christ,
and heard Jesus distinctly say, ' In Rome will I be
14 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
gracious unto thee/ This vision being related to
the desponding brethren, revived their drooping
courage : and lo ! Loyola's prediction was very
speedily realised, for Pope Paul III. was highly
delighted with the aid thus unexpectedly and
most opportunely brought to the Roman Church,
which was at that moment brought into great
straits by the rapid progress of the Reforma-
tion ; her very existence was in fact endangered,
and the monkish orders, formerly the most effec-
tive supports and stays of the papacy, were now
of little use : partly owing to the lazy, stupid
degeneracy of a great proportion of their members ;
while the fiery zeal of others had led them to incur
the people's hatred by their unmeasured cruelty
to heretics; and partly because the advance of men-
tal culture through the great mass of society had
rendered people less affected by the terror of the
papal ban on the one hand, and less easily cajoled
by monkish charlatanery on the other. The
Romish Church stood in need of prudent, well-
educated, and deeply-devoted defenders, and
such were Loyola and his friends. No wonder,
then, that they met a most gracious reception
from the pope, and that he promised to give their
propositions the most careful consideration. Nor
THE INSTITUTION. 15
was Loyola remiss in availing himself of these
favourable appearances. Summoning all his as-
sociates at once to Rome, he busied himself in
sketching, with their aid, the statutes of the
embryo order, and doubtless in their consulta-
tions Lainez exercised no unimportant influence.
To secure the pope's favour unequivocally to
their proposed society, it was resolved, that, in
addition to the three usual monastic vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience to superiors, a
fourth vow should be taken, that of special un-
conditional OBEDIENCE TO THE POrE. The
next subject of consideration was, the name to be
assumed by the new order, and on this point
Loyola declared to his brethren, and that with a
rapture amounting almost to inspiration, that,
' while kneeling in humble devotion in the cave
by Manresa, the Lord Jesus had Himself revealed
to him the plan of the order. ' Again/ continued
he, ' Jesus appeared to me in the chapel as we
drew nigh to Rome, and audibly promised me
His divine support ; consequently, the order
being properly nothing less than the work and
will of Jesus, it ought to bear his name.' This
was conclusive, and it was decided to designate the
association ' the society of Jesus.'
16 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
The plan shortly after submitted to the pope,
was in substance as follows. f The society of
Jesus shall constitute a trained host, ready at all
times to fight for God's vicegerent, the holy
Roman Father, and for the Roman Catholic
Church, in which alone is salvation : in order to
attain this, strict discipline is as needful as in
a temporal army ; and for the due maintenance of
discipline, it is requisite that every member of the
society should pay the same unhesitating and un-
questioning obedience to his superior as is re-
quired from a soldier to his commander. He
must further pay his superior the same humble
reverence due to Christ Himself, because in this
warfare every individual brother must feel as if
called to combat against a world in arms ; and
therefore, whoever enlists under the banners of
the society, must from that moment consent to
forfeit all will of his own, and dare neither ask
where, or for what purpose he is employed ; for
where the will of the pope, expressed through his
superior, appoints his lot, there he must un-
shrinkingly hasten, like the soldier into the
hottest fire of the enemy, with a prompt and un-
questioning alacrity, be it against Jews, Infidels,
heretics, or true believers ; and when he is com-
THE INSTITUTION. 17
manded to remain, there he must abide rooted to
his appointed post to the latest moment of his
existence ! The weapons to be wielded by the
society are, preaching, hearing, confession, spirit-
ual exercises, and the education of youth ; while
the distribution of rank and office, no less than the
sphere of action, remains entirely with the su-
perior, to be apportioned according to his views
of individual merit. God should be their pay-
master, and therefore it should not be lawful for
any member of the order to possess private
property ; but the order itself might be invested
with funds, for the purpose of founding and en-
dowing separate colleges in various universities,
for the education of youths destined for the
future service of the society.' The committee of
three cardinals, to whom was confided the task of.
examining and passing judgment on these pro-
posed regulations for the new order of spiritual
knighthood, felt some scruples at agreeing to the
last clause, because the Lateran and Lyons
Synods, held in the years 1215 and 1274, had ex-
pressly decided against such temporalities being
conceded in the foundation of any future religious
order ; but the advantages which must accrue to
the papal chair by the acquisition of so martial
c
18 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
and unconditionally-devoted a band of adherents,
were too tempting to be rejected, and Paul III.
decided on accepting Loyola's proposals. Soon
after, by a Bull issued on the 27th of September
1540, (commencing with the words ' Regimini
militantis ecclesice]) in which he professed to re-
cognise the finger of God in the affair, he solemnly
constituted and established c the Society of Jesus/
or ' the Jesuit order ; ' limiting the number of
members at first, however, to sixty. Thus was the
declaration of war, proclaimed by a spiritual host
against all who throughout the world should pre-
sume to think and believe other than the Church
of Rome prescribed, sanctioned by the Pope as
head of that Church, and consecrated in the
eyes of all who, regarding him as God's vice-
gerent upon earth, esteemed all his decisions as
the infallible dictates of the Holy Spirit. Ig-
natius Loyola had at length attained what
he regarded as the highest aim of life, the
summit of all honour ; and though assuredly he
was far from anticipating the mighty part which
the engine he had called into existence should
one day perform on the world's stage, or the
vast extent of the influence it was destined
to exercise over mankind, still it cannot be denied
THE INSTITUTION. 19
that all the capabilities which after events called
forth, were contained in the first rudiments of
the statutes he drew up for the order.
Its establishment having thus received the Pope's
sanction, the first duty which devolved on the
members in 1541 was the election of a superior.
Their choice fell on Loyola, who long refused to
accept the dignity ; and that not from hypocrisy,
but from a deep inward conviction that the exercise
of self-denial in abstaining from accepting what
had long been the dearest wish of his soul, was
of the highest merit in the sight of God. He was at
length brought to consent, yielding in fact (in
the exercise of Christian humility,) to the com-
mands of his confessor, who laid the acceptance
of this high office upon his conscience, as an im-
perative duty ; but having once accepted it, the
same religious scruples again interfered, and led
him to humble himself to the uttermost before
the brotherhood ; until, by degrees, a thorough
conviction of the high importance of his position,
roused Loyola from the prostration of this volunta-
ry humility, and he began to act in accordance
with his exalted station. As superior of the
order he had received the title of general, {pro-
positus gener alls) and he availed himself of the
c 2
20 THE ORDER OF JESUITS.
distinguished talents of many of the brotherhood
with an ever-increasing circumspection and pru-
dence ; contriving so to amalgamate in the order
as a whole, those who were superior in endow-
ments to himself, that they willingly submitted
to put forth their united strength at his dictation,
in furthering whatever, by promoting the general
interests and independence of the society, con-
tributed in an equal ratio to advance their own.
CHAPTER II.
THE INCREASE OF THE JESUIT ORDER.
The Pope meanwhile had already obtained some
substantial evidence of the importance of the
society of Jesus. The fame of its members for
piety, severity of morals, politeness, and learning,
had spread from Italy, where they had with
equal zeal and success exerted themselves to effect
a reformation of manners, into many other coun-
tries, and had reached even the ears of John III.
of Portugal, who burned with an eager zeal to
convert the heathen nations of India to Chris-
tianity. He had written to Rome even before
the society had obtained the Pope's formal sanc-
tion, begging the assistance of some disciples
of Loyola in carrying out his pious design.
22 INCREASE OF
Franciscus Xavier and Simon Rodriguez had
instantly obeyed the call, and contrived in a short
time so completely to gain the confidence of the
Portuguese monarch, that he no longer wished
them to go to India, but to retain them entirely at
his court. Rodriguez did in fact remain, and used
his influence with the king so wisely, that the
order of Jesuits became not only firmly establish-
ed but widely diffused throughout Portugal, and
the king had a splendid college built at Coimbra
for the new members, who already amounted to
200. Franciscus Xavier, however, was heart and
soul occupied with the conversion of the heathen,
and desirous of devoting his life to an object
which appeared to him the holiest upon earth.
He accordingly set sail from Lisbon, armed
with the most extensive powers both from the
pope and the king of Portugal, for the East Indies,
and arrived in the month of May, 1542, at Goa,
the chief town of the Portuguese settlement,
where Christianity had already been introduced :
and, entering at once upon his office as the Pope's
legate, he pursued his vocation with a warmth of
zeal, a persevering patience, and an untiring
energy peculiarly his own.
His first efforts were directed to the attainment
THE JESUIT ORDER. 23
of the language, and the care of the poor and
sick. He next went about with a little bell, by
which he attracted the children, whom he then
instructed, with all the tenderness and fidelity of
a father, in the Christian faith. He next com-
menced preaching to the people at large, and
succeeded in suppressing several heathenish cus-
toms which were opposed to Christian morality.
From Goa he proceeded to the Pearl Coast, and
visited Travancore, Cochin, Ceylon, Malacca, Am-
boyna, and Ternate, baptising thousands of the
heathen. Brethren from Europe arrived from
time to time, to aid and carry on the work he
had begun ; and even native converts were oc-
casionally employed by him in propagating the
tenets of the society of Jesus. The Goa college
contained 120 members, and the bold spirit of
Xavier, which shrank from no difficulties, was con-
stantly planning the most momentous measures.
The conversion of a Japanese refugee to Chris-
tianity, suggested the idea of penetrating into
that mighty empire, and adding it to the conquests
of the Roman Catholic Church ; and in the year
1549 Xavier actually made his way thither, as-
sumed the dress and manners of the natives, and
began at once to introduce the doctrines of
24 INCREASE OF
Christianity. At length his unwearied zeal kindled
the thought of planting the banner of the cross
in China itself, that strange country, shut up for
centuries by unalterable decrees from all inter-
course with foreigners, who were forbidden to in-
trude within its limits under pain of death. But
to a man of Xavier's temperament no danger was
appalling ; and, despite the earnest entreaties and
warnings of his friends, the enthusiastic preacher
of the faith resolved to venture on China's for-
bidden soil ; and to do more was not granted him,
for, being seized with violent fever in the little
island of Sancian, he died on the 2nd of December,
1552, his thoughts solely occupied with his work,
even in his latest moments ! a man seldom
equalled in zeal, energy, and perseverance : He
was canonized by the Romish Church in 1623.
Cotemporaneously with the attempts of Xavier
in the east, many of his brethren made their way
into South America, and engaged in the dangerous
and difficult work of converting the untutored
natives of Brazil.
Meanwhile the order, prodigiously increased in
numbers, spread itself all over Europe, for the
purpose of restoring the influence of the Roman
Catholic Church, but not always with success.
THE JESUIT ORDER. 25
Thus the fathers Salmeron and Broet were de-
spatched, furnished with a papal safe-conduct, to
Ireland, to lend their aid in upholding Romanism
in that country, and guard it against the evil ex-
ample and influence of England, which had re-
cently thrown off the papal yoke ; but they con-
ducted themselves with such haughty violence,
that the people became indignant, and they were
forced to fly without having accomplished in any
measure the purpose of their mission. Neither
were their efforts crowned with better success in
France, for being driven thence, they fled to
Lowen, in the Low Countries, and at length accom-
plished a settlement there. Even in Spain their
first attempts met with great opposition ; for the
Spanish clergy regarded their doctrines as sus-
picious, and their influence as dangerous ; but a
man of distinguished rank and power, Franciscus
Borgia, Duke de Gandia, not only became their
warm supporter, but afterwards a member of their
order, and his example paved their road to success.
They now attached themselves chiefly to the court
and the nobility, with whom their ardent zeal for
the maintenance of pure Roman Catholic doctrine,
(an object dear to the fiery, enthusiastic Spanish
spirit) soon procured for them high favour and
26 INCREASE OF
confidence. But Italy still remained the principal
theatre of their operations, and the chief seat of
their power. The residence of their general, who
guided the whole machinery with a powerful hand,
Italy was the centre of that enormous web of au-
thority and proselytism, from which were spun
out the thousand thousand threads, that served to
connect, to guide, and to overrule the world.
In Germany, the birth-place of the Reformation,
the task assigned to the Jesuits was as difficult as
it was important ; for not only were they involved
in an open conflict with Protestantism, and its
most potent auxiliaries, freedom of thought
and conscience, defended as they were by several
powerful princes, but they were called on to dry
up, as it were, the source, whence the stream they
could no longer hope to cut off, had sprung and
was still daily fed, by which thousands had been
already lost to Home. They must, in short, aim at
blunting, stupifying, and by degrees annihilating,
the spirit of free enquiry in the nation : and what
means could be so effectual as the getting the edu-
cation of the rising generation into their own hands,
and thus obtaining the opportunity of instilling
into their unsuspicious and susceptible minds,
such doctrines and principles of action, as might
THE JESUIT ORDER. 27
render them in after life passive instruments of
their will ? To effect this, they must, at least
ostensibly, adopt the protestant weapon, learning,
in order to meet the present impulse of the Ger-
man mind, which was too deeply imbued with the
desire and search after truth, to be other than
disgusted and offended, by any avowed opposition
to it, by which indeed they would but have in-
sured to themselves loss of respect and confidence.
But, on the other hand, the outward forms, the
very husk and shell of learning, must cautiously
be substituted for the reality : and this dead letter,
being adorned with all the glosses of art, and
held up as the ultimate object, the highest at-
tainment of the human mind, was admirably cal-
culated to catch and to satisfy their unwary dis-
ciples, with a specious show of truth. While
thus carefully tutoring the judgment to their will,
they took pains to inflame the imagination, and
secure by all means its mastery over the under-
standing of their victims. The success of this
scheme, as committed to the Jesuits in Germany,
was greatly facilitated by the circumstance, that
the religious divisions between protestants and
catholics, having issued in forming political ones,
the catholic princes became alarmed lest the spread
28 INCREASE OF
of protestantism might endanger the stability of
their temporal power, and with such feelings it
was natural for them to hail the Jesuits as welcome
and opportune allies. The first of the fraternity
who appeared in Germany were Le Jay and Bo-
badilla, who came as ambassadors from the Roman
see to take part in the religious discussions held
at Worms and Regensburg.
The elector Albert of Mayence was the first
favourer of the order in Germany, but soon after,
fathers Le Jay, Salmeron, and Peter Canisius,
were summoned by the strictly orthodox Roman
Catholic Duke William IVth. of Bavaria, to aid
him in crushing the germ of protestantism in his
dominions. They arrived at Ingolstadt in 1549,
and commenced their labours in its university, of
which Peter Canisius was elected rector in 1550,
and Duke William founded a college for the order.
His son, Duke Albert, patronised them with equal
zeal, and entrusted to them the censorship of all
works printed within his territory. In 1556 eigh-
teen Jesuits arrived in Ingolstadt, and soon accom-
plished the sure foundation of then* power. Pa-
tronized by the court, in possession of the univer-
sity and the censorship, no wonder that the refined,
politic, and learned fraternity, rapidly obtained
THE JESUIT ORDER. 29
great influence with all classes, and, elevating in-
surmountable barriers against the religious ad-
vancement of the people, soon made Bavaria the
strongest bulwark against the reformation, and
the home of popery in Germany. The first ap-
pearance of the Jesuits in Vienna was in 1551,
when the Reformation had already gained nume-
rous adherents both among the nobles and the
bulk of the people. To counteract this, the
king of the Romans, (afterwards Emperor,) Fer-
dinand I. whose attention had been drawn
to the danger, by his father confessor Bishop
Urban of Laybach, condescended to write a letter
to Loyola with his own hand, which quickly pro-
duced the arrival of Le Jay and twelve other
brethren, who received indeed at first only diet
and lodging from Ferdinand's bounty, but soon
after obtained the charge of the university.
They entered on this work with the greatest
energy, more especially Peter Canisius, who
joined them from Ingolstadt in 1552. Per-
ceiving, as he did, what important service the
Lutheran Catechism had rendered to protestan-
tism, he compiled in 1554 a Catholic Catechism,
(likewise of two classes, a larger and g, smaller,)
calculated as well for the use of the unlearned
30 INCREASE OF
as for the instruction of youth, which being not
only recommended, but enforced by a govern-
ment decree, exercised, in process of time, im-
mense influence in re-establishing and perpetuating
the Roman Catholic creed. The self-denial and
admirable constancy, with which the Jesuits bore
the avowed hatred of the Austrian nobles, over-
came in the end all obstacles placed in their
way ; and when they at length gained possession
of the provincial seminaries, and felt conscious of
their growing power, they no longer hesitated
to commence an open as well as secret persecu-
tion, of all such as did not profess the Roman
Catholic faith ; in which career, Casinius so
specially distinguished himself, as to become
odious to the people, who bestowed on him the
appellation of Canis Austriacus, or the Aus-
trian dog.
In 1556 the Jesuits found their way into Bo-
hemia, planted a college in Prague, and even
got possession of the university there, as they had
in Vienna. In 1561 they founded a college in
Tyrnan, (in Hungary,) and contrived soon after to
get footing in the Moravian cities of Olmutz and
Brim.
It was not without considerable difficulty that
THE JESUIT ORDER. 31
they made good their entrance into Cologne;
the reformation having taken firm root in a great
proportion of the population, and Archbishop
Herman being no ways hostile to it. That
enlightened prelate well perceived, that the true
interests of the Catholic church would be more
promoted by the removal of abuses, and the in-
troduction of improvements conformed to the
spirit of the times, than either by compulsory
regulations, or stultifying the people by igno-
rance and superstition. But the contrary party
in the city, who were willing to sacrifice every
thing to the maintenance of the Roman Catholic
church in its present order, and who were more
especially bent on preserving the university, as
a nursery for Roman Catholic tenets, were no
less strenuous in their efforts ; the Jesuits per-
ceived and employed this state of things to
their own advantage, and finally succeeded in
getting possession of the university in 1556.
By similar means and intrigues they got es-
tablished successively in Treves, Mayence, Asch-
affenburg, &c, and opened their college at Treves
in 1561. But Ignatius Loyola had early fixed
his eyes on Germany as a desirable field of
labour, and instituted in Rome even so soon as
32 INCREASE OF
the year 1552, a special college in which young
Germans might be trained up under his own
immediate inspection in the spirit of the order
and might thus become able combatants for its
principles throughout their fatherland.
Loyola indeed lived but for his order, and now
displayed a power of understanding which ri-
valled his earlier fanaticism, and equalled his
characteristic energy and decision ; so that, in
proportion as the society of Jesus increased in
numbers and outward consideration, in like pro-
portion was Loyola bent on confirming and per-
fecting its internal organization, by the removal
of every defect, and the extension and culti-
vation of all its capabilities of independence.
Meanwhile the pope, daily more convinced of
the zeal, devotion, and high importance of the
brotherhood to the Roman see, was continually
bestowing on it new privileges, each more valu-
able than the preceding, in the design of binding
it, by indissoluble ties of interest, to the papal
chair. Stimulated by such motives, Paul III
withdrew, so early as 1543, the ordinance, by
which he had limited the order to sixty members,
and gave the general permission to admit as
many as he might judge expedient ; and farther
THE JESUIT ORDER. 33
allowed him to enact new, and alter former re-
gulations, according to circumstances, without
any previous papal sanction. Two years later, he
licensed the Jesuits to preach in all places,
whether consecrated or not ; to absolve from all
sins ; to read mass and dispense sacraments before
sunrise and after noon-tide ; and that too
without seeking permission from either bishops
or other clergy, in whose dioceses or parishes
they might happen to be. In 1546 the pope
consented to confirm a new arrangement made
by Loyola, by which the order, hitherto con-
sisting but of two classes, " the professed," who
took all the four vows upon them, and the un-
professed or disciples, was to receive a third class
of members, termed coadjutors or assistants,
which class should include such as desired ad-
mission into the society, but who from age, or
position in life, were unsuited for fulfilling the
duties either of professed, or of scholars. This
last class, which was required only to take the
three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience
to their own superiors, was to contain lay as well
as clerical members, and this was a new step of
approximation in the order, both in essence and
D
34 INCREASE OF
form, to a well-arranged, and systematically-classi-
fied monarchy. Loyola, meanwhile, was unwea-
ried in his applications to the Roman See, in order
to obtain full recognition of the strictly monar-
chical principle involved in the office of general,
verging by slow but sure degrees to complete
despotism, so that the commands of the general
should be esteemed equally sacred and infallible
as those of the pope himself : and such was the
complete success of Loyola's efforts, that the
book composed by him for the training of no-
vices, and denominated, " Spiritual Exercises,"
although attacked by the Archbishop of Toledo,
was in 1548, not only approved and commended
in a papal bull, but even doubts respecting it were
declared to be deserving the highest ecclesiastical
censure ! And one year later, (1549) the inde-
fatigable Loyola obtained from Paul III.
another important concession.
The chief privileges aimed at in all these Bulls
regarded two points — the release of the Jesuit
order from all diocesan and parochial subordi-
nation, and the absolute or rather the despoti-
cally-monarchical character of its constitution.
Both objects were intimately connected ; for, if
the pope desired to possess a spiritual corps,
THE JESUIT ORDER. 35
devoted unconditionally to his service, it must
necessarily be constituted wholly independent of
all intermediate controul from the other branches
of the hierarchy, but at the same time subjected
to the strictest internal military organization and
discipline. The separate rules laid down in
the before-mentioned bulls were as follows. No
bishops might dare to excommunicate a Jesuit ;
but they on the contrary were empowered to
celebrate divine service even in a district la-
bouring under papal interdict, which no other
priest could venture to do. Further, neither the
general, nor any of his subordinates, were under
any obligation, to place even the inferior members
of the order at the disposal of any bishop or
prelate ; or, should they do so of their own free
will, the Jesuits always remained amenable to,
and wholly subject to the power of their own
superiors. No appeal from the awards of the
general was permitted to any earthly tribunal
whatever ; while, on the other hand, he, or any
one empowered by him, could absolve from
every sin, all who were in any way connected with
the order ; could even annul excommunication,
and give dispensations from all ecclesiastical
punishments.
D 2
36 INCREASE OF
Other means possessed by the Jesuits for
maintaining their independence were, the rules
which prohibited them from confessing to any
but a priest of their own order, or passing from
it into any other religious community than that
of the Carthusians, on whom eternal silence is
imposed by their monastic vow. It was farther
permitted to the general and those nominated by
him to act in his name, to exclude members, as
well as to imprison them. Without his sanction
no Jesuit durst accept any official preferment
beyond the bound of his order, (as the office of
bishop for example,) for which rule, though hu-
mility was the ostensible, — absolute despotism,
requiring passive submission, (which is through-
out the ruling principle of the system,) was the
real, — cause. These bulls likewise declared every
gift made to the order to be inviolable and ir-
revocable, and released all its possessions from
the payment of tythes, even those claimable by
the papal see. Lastly, the general, or his proxies,
were free to admit every one, even the greatest
criminals, into their order, and bestow priestly
consecration upon them, if they saw fit ; to
receive coadjutors without limit, and to dispense
with the rule which enjoined the professed to
take the fourth vow only in Rome.
THE JESUIT ORDER. 37
Paul's successor, Julius III, confirmed in
1550 the society of Jesus in all its privileges and
immunities, and gave it some new ones ; among
others, the very important concession by which
the heads of the order were empowered to bestow
all academical honors on their own students, by
which privilege the opposing influence of rival
universities was effectually neutralized, and the
order enabled to train up for itself men, destined
whether for the church or for the world, embued
with its own spirit, fixed in its own principles,
and ready at all times, and under all circum-
stances, to promulgate its doctrines, defend its
interests, and further its ends.
Thus had the order of Jesus, by its unwearied
and successful operations in favour of popery,
gained the unbounded confidence of the popes,
and thereby attained to a height of power,
which was in truth almost papal ; and the natural
consequence was, that its strictly-regulated,
classified, and admirably-subordinated govern-
ment, soon came to acknowledge no earthly
power but its own, and secretly regarded the
papacy, for whose protection the order had ori-
ginally been constituted, as a mere machine, to
be used as an instrument for promoting its
38 INCREASE OF
interests, or as an escutcheon of pretence to cover
its designs.
A no less certain consequence, however, of such
unbounded power was, that individuals would
abuse it ; and thus it happened in Spain, but
still more in Portugal ; where Jesuits occupied
the confessional of the king, and superintended
the education of the prince royal. Spoiled by
this high position and the command of immense
treasures, they became haughty, neglectful of
duty and good morals, devised intrigues, and
became causes of indignation and disgust to all
ranks. On learning these disgraceful proceedings,
Loyola became highly incensed with Simon Ro-
driguez, to whose over-indulgence he attributed
the extent of this degeneracy, and commanded
his withdrawal from the Portuguese court. Ro-
driguez obeyed, but slandered his general to the
king, whose full confidence he possessed. The
monarch became highly displeased, and Loyola,
though himself accustomed to act the autocrat
with his own adherents, felt the necessity of
giving way, and using every effort to conciliate
the offended potentate, and do away the evil im-
pression from the mind of the nation, which
might prove so permanently injurious to the
THE JESUIT ORDER. 39
whole order. Of this the Portuguese Jesuits
were so fully convinced, that those whose dissolute
lives atCoimbra had brought them into ill repute,
left the college, and paraded the streets, singing
litanies and scourging themselves openly in the
sight of the people, who, moved and edified,
"changed their minds and worshipped them,"
if not " as Gods, " yet as holy and most devoted
men !
This event fell with a heavy weight of sorrow
on Ignatius Loyola in the evening of his active
life ; to which was superadded the pain of seeing
that the Society of Jesus, notwithstanding its
brilliant success in other quarters, was still
unable to find firm footing in France. Not only
the bishop of Paris and the parliament, but the
orthodox theological college of the Sorbonne, re-
sisted with determined firmness, the admission
of the Jesuits into France, upon the ground
that the great privileges possessed by them might
prove inimical to the freedom of the French
church. Nor did Loyola live to see the removal
of these obstacles to the fulfilment of his wishes.
His body, prematurely weakened by the count-
less mortifications to which, during the period of
his fanatical austerities, it had been subjected,
40 THE JESUIT ORDER.
was quite worn out by the ceaseless stretch of
mental effort, and the heavy cares of government,
which came upon him during the last sixteen
years of his life, when the ponderous machine of
internal management and external policy was
guided by his still-powerful mind. He died
at Rome on the 31st of July 1556, and had
the satisfaction of knowing in his last moments
that his order already counted one thousand
members, (although of these only 35 had
professed the four vows) in Europe, Asia, and
America ; whilst the hope that the work to
which he had devoted his life would survive him by
many centuries, aye, that its reign must be coeval
with that of Roman Catholicism itself, this proud
hope, softened and brightened the dying strug-
gles of Loyola. He was canonized by Gregory
X, on the 12th of March 1622, and the
Roman Catholic church reverences him to the
present day as a powerful mediator with God;
while the Jesuits place the founder of their order
on a footing with the Lord Jesus Christ himself! !
Thus was bestowed on this ambitious soldier,
sixty- six years after his decease, a triumph such
as no one of this world's conquerors ever attained.
CHAPTER III.
THE CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND MORAL
CODE OF THE JESUITS.
Ignatius Loyola had no sooner closed his eyes
in death, than Jacob Lainez began to breathe
more freely, and to feel as if the long-cherished
desire of his soul to become general of the
order, for which Loyola's death alone could pave
the way, might yet be realized.
Lainez was far indeed from possessing Loyola's
religious enthusiasm, but was gifted to an
astonishing degree with the faculty of penetrating
into men's hearts and designs, as well as with
a masterly eloquence and great capacity for
state affairs. Hence the important service he
was able to render both to his own order and
the Roman See at the Council of Trent, in
42 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
1551 — 1552, by upholding in opposition to the
bishops of the different nations, the principle of
a God-bestowed supremacy on the Bishop of
Rome over the whole Christian church, a su-
premacy involving not only the subjection of
bishops, but of temporal princes to the Pope.
Jacob Lainez possessed, it is true, an overween-
ing love, but likewise a distinguished talent for
command ; and after Loyola's death he employed
all his credit and influence, in conjunction with
his uncommon subtlety, to secure the vacant
office of general for himself. He so far succeed-
ed as to be at once named vicar-general, by the
professed members, then resident at Rome ; and
in that capacity he summoned the subordinate
chiefs of the order, from their various posts, to
form a ' general congregation' at Rome for the
election of a general. This step was, however,
necessarily postponed for two years, on account
of the war waging between the Pope and the
Emperor of Germany ; besides which, Paul the
IVth, who entertained a great distrust of the
immense power of the Jesuit order, refused to
sanction the election of any general for life.
Under these circumstances, Jacob Lainez con-
tented himself with obtaining the passing of a
AND MORAL CODE. 43
resolution by the brotherhood, that, until the
election of a general could take place, no altera-
tion should be made in the existing regulations
of the society. At length, in 1558, the election
was carried through, the choice falling on Lainez,
who, once holding the reins of government in his
hands, soon induced his brethren to pass a law
making the office of general for life. The
Pope, much enraged at this decision, so directly
opposed to his will, threatened to reduce the
Jesuits in all respects to the level of the other
monastic orders, which they of course strove by
every means to avert ; until at last the subtle
Lainez, considering the Pope's age, and the con-
sequent improbability of his long continuance in
office, saw fit to give way for the moment, antici-
pating the time when Paul's death should enable,
him to pursue his own views without opposition :
In the meantime he continued, with that
unconquerable perseverance which never loses
sight of its object, whatever delays or hindrances
may impede its progress, to carry on a work of
the utmost importance to the future prosperity
of his order ; namely, the perfecting of its consti-
tution.
The foundation of the great building had indeed
44 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
been laid by Loyola, and many a stone and pillar
prepared and fitted for use, in doing which
Lainez had faithfully assisted both with hand
and head; but now he gathered together all
previous regulations and plans of the great
founder, (' Constitutions Societatis Jesu ') and
having laid them before the members for their
consideration, contrived so effectually to bend all
minds to his own views, and so artfully to arrange,
remodel, and round off the crude materials of his
predecessor, that the compact system of statutes
now adopted, and which has been faithfully fol-
lowed up ever since by his successors, may justly
be designated as the work of Lainez.
The ruling principles of this system, in some
degree diverging from the intentions of Loyola,
but which successive years have only served to
develope more distinctly, may be resolved into
three propositions. 1. The highest aim of the
Jesuit Order is its own interest as a spiritual com-
munity; but the object and tendency of all
its proceedings is the attainment of the govern-
ment of the universe. 2. The form of the Jesuit
rule is, absolute monarchy, under the semblance
of a great republic, the concentrated will of which
is represented by, and embodied in, the acts of
AND MORAL CODE. 45
the governing chief. Further ; although the
firm alliance between the Order and the Pope-
dom was still maintained, it was in a sense entire-
ly opposite to the intentions of its founder, and
the expectations of the Pope ; for while, according
to its original constitution, the Jesuit Order
was designed to support and extend the Papacy
even to universal monarchy, the Papacy was now,
without being aware of it, brought to lend the
cover of its name to operations by which the
Society promoted and sustained its own universal
dominion. Hence, so soon as the Jesuits, by
their wonderful activity, co-operation, and in-
fluence, had rendered themselves indispensable
to the Roman See, they appeared before the
world as but a new embodiment of its leading
principles, and became at once the spiritual eye
and the ruling hand of Catholicism. Every princi-
ple and rule of policy by which the Papacy had
risen to greatness and power was shared by the
Jesuits. As in former days the Popes had been
regarded as the vicegerents of Christ, so their
general was now considered such; and as the
popes formerly claimed to have received, directly
from God, the supreme right to earthly power,
which kings and princes exercised only as their
46 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
delegates and the Suzerains of the Church, the
society of Jesuits now in like manner assumed to
be the ruling power upon earth; kings and
princes being in fact only their deputies, to whom
consequently subjects owed obedience so long
and no longer as they remained faithfully sub-
missive to the directions of their spiritual
superiors, in default of which they might lawfully
be deprived both of crown and life. And as the
pope formerly denounced all who ventured to
think differently from the Roman Catholic
Church, as heretics, and accursed of God, and as
such denuded of all civil rights ; so now every one
who exercised the right of private judgment was
considered by the Jesuits as their enemy, and
deserving of being annihilated, if he would not be
converted to their views. In short, all the
peculiar doctrines of popery, its supposed divine
right to universal dominion, its assumed infalli-
bility, and stern intolerance, having their rise
in one source and tending to one end, the preserva-
tion of unity in the Church, were adopted by the
Jesuits as their own, only marked out with still
more uncompromising distinctiveness. When
they had formed the individual features of the
system into a more consistent whole, they in-
AND MORAL CODE. 47
serted, as the keystone to the artistically-framed
arch of their ascendancy, the startling doctrine
that, as every act of the order ivas designed to
promote the glory of God, therefore, the end
must sanctify the means. In this, as in a
charmed sentence, lay the whole practical appli-
cation of the Jesuit system, and the round of
Jesuit morality.
But the powerful lever by which Loyola's fra-
ternity accomplished that to which popery in the
highest zenith of its power could not attain, was
twofold, embracing first, internal unity, secured by
the stern severity of its statutes ; and, secondly,
its policy, which, while cautiously eschewing all
open conflict with temporal power, contrived by
secret machinations and proselytizing, on the
one hand, and by its unbounded influence in.
courts and on the mind of youth committed to
their tuition, on the other, more securely to work
their ends. The principle upon which this last
engine was to be worked was reduced to a regular
system by Claudius Arquaviva the fifth general ;
Jacob Lainez, the successor of Loyola, having
been followed in 1565 by Franciscus Borgia,
formerly Duke of Gaudia, a monastic bigot,
to whom succeeded Eberhard Mercurianus, (the
48 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
immediate predecessor of Claudius Arquaviva,
of the ducal family of Alva) who ruled the order
34 years (from 1581 to 1615), and besides com-
piling the plan of education above alluded to, en-
titled, ' Ratio institutio studiorum Societatis Jesu,'
issued several laws regarding the obedience due
to the different superiors of the order, and various
ordinances, either to redress abuses which had
crept in, or to suppress the spirit of opposition
to despotic government, which had occasionally
manifested itself even in the ranks of the frater-
nity. Arquaviva therefore may be regarded as
having followed up with a stern consistency, the
artfully-contrived frame of Jesuitical despotism ;
the aims of which have well been seconded by
successive popes, in the great privileges bestowed
with unexampled liberality on the Jesuit commu-
nity, of which ninety-two may be enumerated as
having been conferred by 19 popes between 1540
and 1753.
The constitution of the society of Jesus, in as
far as it can be gathered from its printed statutes
and regulations, together with the introductions
and explanations issued by the order itself, was and
is as follows. The society may be divided into five
classes of members ; the first and highest of which
AND MORAL CODE. 49
comprehends c the professed/ or such as, having
taken all the four vows, and having been ini-
tiated into the undivulged maxims of the order,
are admitted to the fullest participation in its
active duties, and have the first claim to its hon-
ors and dignities. To this class belong of course
the select few of long-tried members whose dis-
tinguished talents and comprehensive minds ren-
der them capable of appreciating the immense
extent of the task undertaken by the society, and
of helping forward its performance. These have
ever in fact formed the heart and soul, the sup-
porting trunk and vivifying sap of the wide-
spreading Jesuitical tree, and receive for their
guidance secret instructions (monita secreta) in
addition to the laws which come under the world's
cognizance. The second class consists of* the
clerical coadjutors, who receive priestly consecra-
tion, and pronounce their vows directly to their
own general. But between these two descrip-
tions of members exists a kind of intermediate
class, whose profession is limited to three vows,
and who promise no special obedience to the pope ;
yet their vows are taken with much solemnity, and
thus differ from the simple vow of obedience and
adherence to rules taken by the secular coadjutors.
E
50 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
The third distinctive class comprehends the re-
ceived scholars, (scholastici approbati) ; the fourth
consists of the lay brothers, or secular coadjutors ;
while to the fifth and lowest belong the novices
who remain two or three years upon trial, and
take only the simple vow of living during their
novitiate in accordance with the rules of the order.
To all these should indeed be superadded a sixth
description of Jesuits, denominated affiliated, or
adjuncts ; more familiarly, Jesuits in short coats !
This class includes in fact all ranks, not excepting
the very highest : and being wholly unsuspected
of being in any way connected with the society
of Jesus, they are for that very reason capable of
rendering the most important service in promoting
its secret designs : in return for which they enjoy
all those pretended spiritual favours, of which, ac-
cording to Jesuit theory, the mere entrance into
the order, accompanied by a vow of blind obe-
dience to its behests, secures possession, including
of course that grace which Jesuitism professes to
bestow on all its members ; full forgiveness of sin,
and the assurance of eternal happiness after death ;
an assurance which cannot fail to act as a powerful
stimulant to men of credulous minds and an un-
quiet conscience. Hence the order has always
AND MORAL CODE. 51
had, and at this very moment has, at its com-
mand, a countless host of such uncowled members,
including statesmen, professors, officers, mer-
chants, and even ladies, who, unknown and unsus-
pected, act the part of spies for the fraternity, and
whose unwearied zeal and ceaseless activity leave
nothing unattempted which may promote and
consolidate its gigantic power. These are the
invisible legions against whose machinations it
behoves us to be much more on our guard than
against those who openly ply their trade in the
dress of their vocation. These are they who have
from the first set themselves to injure every
honest man who was not of their clique, and who,
when themselves devoid of personal credit or in-
fluence, devote every energy to gain over such as
possess both to the interests of the order. But .
lastly we must advert, as belonging to the bro-
therhood in its widest extent, to those numerous
fraternised associations or ' congregations/ into
which are admitted men and women of every rank,
for the avowed purpose of devotional exercises,
and the performance of works of charity, but
which, being under the guidance of Jesuits, are
employed with much effect in furthering the in-
terests of the order.
e 2
52 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
The constitution of the Society of Jesus is there-
fore, as has been already said, a pure despotism ;
the whole legislative, executive, and judicatory
functions being vested in the general, to whom,
as the assumed visible representative of God and
Christ, every member is bound to pay blind and
implicit obedience, even, if need be, at the sacrifice
of conscience ; nay, the slightest approach to the
exercise of thought or volition, is denounced as
being as sinful as blasphemy. The general,
being that to the order, which the Pope is to the
Roman Catholic Church, has very fittingly se-
lected Rome, that ancient centre of universal
dominion, as the residence of himself, (that world's
present ruler, at least in aim and desire,) for he
rules the Jesuit order, and its lust of power knows
no limits but those of the universe. Thence he
deputes each member to his appointed station ;
his is the power to judge and to punish, to ex-
clude or to readmit, to degrade or to promote
members at his sole pleasure. Every degree of
honor, every office of dignity or of emolument is
at his command ; he can dispose at will of all the
revenues and property of the various religious
houses subject to his authority, and is even em-
powered to alter the destination of legacies in op-
AND MORAL CODE. 53
position to the expressed will of the testator. He
directs all colleges ; he propounds all regulations ;
and without his consent no contract made by any
member of the order is held valid. His election
takes place in a general assembly, in which, how-
ever, none but professors of the four vows (and
occasionally those who have taken three, and the
clerical coadjutors) can sit and vote, and it is
held in the manner of a conclave, as in case of the
election of a Pope : the temporary representative
of the general having summoned the authorised
members to come together for the purpose of
refilling the vacant office. According to the
rules of the order, the general himself must sum-
mon a similar assembly when any change in its
statutes is projected ; but still his absolute power,
and the arbitrary manner in which he could re-
venge any dissent from his propositions, enables
him to procure the adoption of whatever he has
set his mind on. From the same cause, although,
according to the letter of the constitution, a
general assembly possesses the power of deposing
its general, should he be proved guilty of any
gross dereliction of morals, or of having acted
contrary to the interests of the society ; yet, as the
maintenance of its credit and respectability in the
54 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
eyes of the world must ever be an object of para-
mount importance, its interests have invariably
carried the day against both justice and vengeance;
expediency has dictated to draw a veil over any
misdemeanors whose punishment must involve
exposure, and the deposition of a general has
never taken place.
As the Jesuit monarchy extends over the whole
earth, its proper management imperiously demands
division of labour, which is accordingly carried
into effect under various gradations. The largest
of these divisions are termed assistanzen, each of
which include several f provinces,' that being the
next grade in the Jesuit economy. The number
of assistanzen was at first only four ; namely, first,
India, second, Spain and Portugal, third, Germany
and France, fourth, Italy and Sicily : but they
were afterwards divided into six ; France, together
with Poland and Lithuania, being erected into
separate assistanzen. At the head of each is an
f assistant/ who has, properly speaking, no juris-
diction, but acts as counsellor to the general.
The Jesuit ( provinces' embrace whole countries ;
each being likewise provided with a governor
termed a provincial, whom the general, in quality
of sovereign, usually appoints for a term of three
AND MORAL CODE. 55
years, but the period may be lengthened or
shortened as he sees fit. The provincial must
inspect, and render an account to the general of
the state of his district once a year : he has the
charge of the government's secular concerns,
must keep a watchful eye on his subordinates,
more especially the teachers, (education generally
being peculiarly commended to his attention,) and
take strict note that no book be printed within
his province which has not obtained the general's
sanction. He is further bound to hold, once in
three years, a provincial synod, composed ex-
clusively of brethren who have taken the four vows,
with the superiors of religious houses, and heads
of colleges. In this provincial synod the sole
business is that of electing a ' representative of
the province,' in what is called ' the assembly of
procurators ; and which, being formed of the
general, the assistants, and the last-mentioned
provincial representatives, possesses the right to
deliberate on the necessity of summoning a
general congregation of the order.
As the Jesuit, from the moment of entering
the society, recognises no ties of blood, no
brethren but those of his order, no "earthly so-
vereign besides his general, no tribunal but that
56 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
of his ghostly superiors, no subjection but to
their rules, no property but the revenues and
privileges of his order, he has in fact no country,
no home, but the province into which the com-
mand of his supreme ruler has transferred him as
his subject, which he is equally ready to exchange
for any other at his nod ; and thus thoroughly
dissevered from all the sacred bands of country
and of kindred, he lives and acts the enslaved tool
of an invisible and yet most worldly community.
Subject to the controul and inspection of the
provincial, stand the following distinct institu-
tions, each furnished with its own separate train
of officials, superior and subordinate. First in
order are the houses of the l professed ' who have
taken all the four vows, and possess neither
revenues nor lands ; their superiors are termed
propositi or provosts. Next come the novitiate,
or test-houses, in which reside the novices,
scholars, and such fathers as have not yet passed
through the third trial : these houses possess
revenues, and their superiors are called novice-
masters ; besides whom, each novice-house has
an examiner, entrusted with the examination
of candidates for admission into the order.
As a kind of makeshift, in places where the es-
AND MORAL CODE. 57
tablishment of neither houses of professed nor
colleges can be accomplished, arise the so-called
residences, serving for dwelling-places to such
Jesuits as are required for preaching and hearing
confession in the neighbourhood, or who desire
to indulge themselves in the quiet of scientific
research ; while sometimes too the residences are
used as a place of banishment for offending mem-
bers. Lastly may be mentioned the ' mission-
houses,' erected by the Jesuits in Protestant
countries, in which they live unnoticed, as se-
cular clergy, but seeking by all possible means
to promote the reestablishment of Romanism.
The educational institutions of the Jesuits are
divided into Seminaries and Colleges, the latter
being again subdivided into gymnasium and
faculty-students. The Gymnasii pursue various,
branches of study : the faculty students receive
instruction in mathematics, moral philosophy,
logic, physics and metaphysics, casuistry, theology,
Hebrew, and the study of the sacred scriptures.
In connection with the colleges, a kind of board-
ing-house is established, for the reception of
students from a distance, (chiefly the sons of dis-
tinguished families,) by which opportunity is af-
forded to the Jesuits greatly to increase their so
58 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
serviceable ' affiliators ' or adopted members,
and win them wholly for the order ; whilst in the
Seminaries such scholars as seem fitted to fill in
future the office of professors, are gratuitously
trained with that object.
No part of the Jesuit arrangements evinces a
deeper insight into the human heart than the
plan adopted and systematically pursued by them
in the education of youth ; to which indeed may
fairly be attributed a large portion of then influ-
ence and consequence in the world. Their high-
est aim being to gain useful and able members,
or attached friends and patrons of their own body,
they felt the necessity of maintaining the strictest
oversight upon both the teachers and the taught ;
and, with this view, no teacher was permitted to
give utterance to any private opinion, nor was
any opportunity afforded the scholars either to
form or to express such for themselves. But, in
exact proportion to the vigilance with which they
were actually debarred from exercising the smallest
freedom of thought, were the pains taken to stim-
ulate the youthful mind by a deceptive appearance
of it. In the Gymnasium classes, learning by
rote formed the chief and most applauded part of
education, in itself sufficient to spur an ambi-
AND MORAL CODE. 59
tious youth into an eager rivalry in mere exercises
of memory, to the neglect, if not the contempt, of
the higher objects of study. Greek literature
was scarcely at all cultivated, and the better de-
velopment of the German tongue much impeded
among the scholars, by the introduction of Latin
as the medium of their intercourse. In like
manner the student of the higher branches of sci-
ence, far from being led onward into their deeper
essence, was taught to fix his chief attention on
the dead letter, the attainment of which, and
the art of disputing in subtle syllogisms, over the
intricacies of suppositious cases, such as could
seldom or never occur in real life, was held up to
his view as the utmost goal of scientific effort.
In this mental fencing, called casuistry, there
frequently occurred such fantastic questions of
dispute, as were calculated equally to kindle the
imagination and to stimulate the vanity of the
contending youths, who sought fame by surpass-
ing each other in useless subtleties ; and such mock
fights, carried on with all apparent earnestness,
so occupied the youthful antagonists, as to rob
them of all love or relish for deeper research ; while,
at the same time, this early familiarity with the
art of disputation, proved an admirable initiation
60 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
for such of the Jesuit pupils as might hereafter
serve the order in the capacity of statesmen or
diplomatists, while it was a no less favorable ex-
ercise for those who, remaining more ostensibly
among its leaders, had frequent need of plausible
sophisms, in order to defend, as "just, right, and
pleasing in God's sight/' acts of the order, which
to every man of sound head and honest heart
could not but appear indescribably despicable, if
not daringly impious.
Moreover, the Jesuits have ever been, and still
are, complete masters in the art of captivating the
sensitive mind of youth. They descend with a
winning affability to the level of their pupils ;
they spur on their ambition by public oratorical
contests, and by the equally public distribution of
rewards to the victors ; they work on their fancy
from the earliest age by theatrical exhibitions ;
and the very air of military order and discipline,
thrown over not only their studies, but their re-
creations, is full of attractions for the young ; while
the parents, dazzled by the pomp of learning, ex-
hibited by their sons, who spoke nothing but Latin,
and by the polished manners acquired in the
Jesuit seminaries, sounded their praises far and
wide, until every father who had the future sue-
AND MORAL CODE. 61
cess of his son at heart felt bound to send him to
one of the Jesuit colleges ; which rose not only in
reputation but in wealth, while, as a natural con-
sequence, all other clerical as well as secular sem-
inaries, deprived of support and denuded of scho-
lars, fell gradually into decadence and neglect.
Nor was this all : the Jesuits added yet another
strong link, namely that of religion, which formed
a prominent part of their system of tuition, to
the chain of sympathy by which they sought to
bind their pupils to their order. Religious in-
struction, prayers, devotional exercises, and the
reading of devotional books, alternated with the
hours of study and recreation. The daily hearing
of mass, frequent confession, and reception of the
Eucharist, were as much lauded by the fathers, as
diligence and progress in study ; and while the
praise of the superior produced its usual effect on
the'stu dents, the confessional furnished the teachers
with a perfect insight into the hearts, and an un-
bounded influence over the conduct, of their pupils.
The heads of Colleges and Seminaries, who were
named rectors, were, equally with the superiors of
professed, novice, and boarding-houses, placed
under the superintendance of their provincial, to
whom they were bound annually to render a faith-
62 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
ful account, not only upon the state of their re-
spective charges, and the diligence of their inmates,
whether scholars or teachers, but regarding all
donations which had been made to the institution
under their care, of all which the provincial was
obliged to forward an abstract to the general at
Rome.
Reporting is in fact an essentially important
engine to enable the general, as the head of so
enormous and widespread a community, to take
oversight at any moment not only of each several
department, but of every member composing it.
By it he can judge of their capabilities, however
distantly placed ; determine the sphere best suited
to the character of each; and, in short, guide the
otherwise unwieldy machine of government to the
most beneficial results. To this end the provin-
cials were likewise required to furnish the general
with a short annual survey, drawn up in the first
instance by the several superiors of the religious
houses and colleges, to which the provincial added
his individual observations. While once in three
years the report of the provincial-plenipotentiary
presented to the general minutely detailed lists,
in which the name, age, rank in the order, perso-
nal appearance, mental capabilities, manners and
AND MORAL CODE. 63
conduct of every individual member, were en-
grossed with punctilious exactness. In addition to
all these various and independent sources of intel-
ligence, the general was accustomed to delegate
special visitors, who, for the purposes of strict
control, travelled through the provinces, and scru-
tinized the deportment of the provincials them-
selves. On the same principle, all who sought ad-
mission into the order were subjected to long and
careful examination and trial, and passive obedience
was exacted from them, even before entering on
their novitiate, during which they were compelled
for two years and sometimes longer, to maintain an
entire abstinence from the indulgence of affection-
ate feelings, and familiarised with the subjugation
of all their inclinations, before being suffered to
take the simple initiatory vow, as a preliminary
to any prospect of advancement in the order.
Each admitted member bound himself by oath to
keep strict watch over his associates, and denounce
every detected fault or failing at once to his su-
perior.
This all-pervading system of controul and re-
ciprocal espial, without which indeed no pure
despotism can long exist, promoted, it is true, dis-
simulation and hypocrisy, but likewise produced
64 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
another, and for the order most beneficial result ;
for, each Jesuit being aware that every act of
his life, every faculty of his soul must be inti-
mately known to the general, and that it was
at once the interest and the practice of the society
to place the most able of its members in the higher
dignities, every man of talent and energy natu-
rally sought to have his merits recognized, and
the fairest field for doing so was furthering the
designs of and cooperating cordially with its
chief; while the reward, consisting in progressive
advancement, not only in nominal rank, but in
obtaining a higher sphere of action, increased
personal independence, and extended rule over
subordinates, combined with the splendid vista of
the dignity of general in perspective, richly in-
demnified them for the endurance of those lower
grades, through which alone the highest could
be reached. This explains why the constitutional
despotism of the order, far from deterring,
seemed to attract able men to its banner, not-
withstanding the iron necessity which compelled
the individual interests of each member to be
sunk and merged in those of the fraternity, so
that private egotism could only be gratified when
identified with those of the institution. But it
AND MORAL CODE. 65
must be conceded on the other hand that the
order never failed to make the cause of the hum-
blest member its own, and defend his honour or
his interest when attacked by the temporal
power, even should such have been drawn down
by his own fault. Nor need we seek for an ex-
planation of such conduct on the part of the
order, which resulted from pure egotism ; for
since the Jesuits as a body, assumed to be so
imbued with the treasure of divine grace as to
lay claim to perfect sanctity and infallibility, the
honour of every member could not be other
than identical with that of the whole. Hence
a conscious identity of interest upheld, if not
confidence, at least unity ; and if it could not
produce honest agreement, secured an equipon-
derance conducive to the greatness, the splen-
dour, and the stability of the order.
Thus stood the order of Jesuits, a spiritual,
and yet, in the most literal acceptation of the
word, a worldly community ; girdling the whole
earth with the chain of its egotism, the countless
links of which were found in its individual mem-
bers. Independence was necessarily the first
conclusion to which such high pretensions could
lead, but for its attainment even the immense
66 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
privileges bestowed by the Roman see were in-
sufficient ; no ! the order required more than
privileges, more than spiritual power, to attain
its ends ; it required the aid of that mighty ta-
lisman, which performs greater wonders on earth
than all the powers of eloquence, makes more
rapid conquests than the best appointed armies,
and has too often alas ! succeeded in silencing
the voice of truth, faithfulness, and honesty, — it
required money ! and therefore the art of ac-
quiring wealth became an important part of its
policy. Alms were insufficient to meet such mul-
tiplied financial necessities ; but so much the more
prolific were the resources furnished by the
wealth of admitted members, and by the dona-
tions and bequests of the pious, including both
nobles and monarchs. Nor were the Jesuits
unskilled in the employment of artifices by
which to gain possession of large inheritances,
whether by alarming the consciences of rich
testators, or amusing the dying with a detail of
the countless masses for their soul's repose which
a handsome bequest would purchase, and which
were sure to prove successful, by reason of the
prerogative enjoyed by the Jesuits of procuring
eternal salvation for all those for whom they
AND MORAL CODE. 67
condescended to intercede. Sometimes the strong
measure of ostensibly excluding members from
tlie order, (which was at all times in the general's
power,) was resorted to, either for the purpose
of obtaining money, or of employing them in
secret services ; when money was the object in
view, the supposed excluded ones could earn or
take possession of an inheritance, (from which
they were during membership debarred by the
letter of their vow,) after which the general
could readmit them, when their property fell
as matter of course into the hands of the order.
Little cared the society of Jesuits, whether or not
the result of such legacy-hunting proved in-
jurious, or even ruinous to the rightful heir; for,
true to their maxim, that " the end sanctifies the
means/' they scrupled not at actual crime to acr
complish their ends ; and the legal heir some-
times disappeared from the earth, no one knew
how. Nor have examples been wanting, even in
modern times, of such ruthless inheritance-
hunters, driving the victims to madness ! Fur-
thermore, the Jesuits carried on lucrative money
transactions, and by getting the Indian and
American trade chiefly into their "own hands,
amassed vast sums, though not always by the
f 2
68 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
most honest means. But, under all circum-
stances, the universally- applicable subterfuge of
(t the end sanctifying the means/' quieted all
scruples ; and the order, being constituted, as
they maintained, solely for the glory of God,
and usury or fraud being resorted to only for
the purpose of promoting that glory, they must
be esteemed not only justifiable but meritorious !
Of course any power which assumes to be the
only God-appointed one on earth, cannot admit
of competitors ; their pretensions must be
deemed presumptuous, and if they persist in
maintaining them, it but remains to use force for
their suppression. On this principle the Jesuits
invariably acted ; although with invisible wea-
pons. Among the heathen nations of Asia and
America, their dominion was extended by means
of missions ; and whilst by the preaching of
Christianity they acquired deathless fame in
Europe, the sacred name served as a pretence for
the acquisition of wealth, and the extension of
their power. In Christian countries a more
subtle policy was requisite, and in order to rule
over princes and people with the surest sway,
they cautiously avoided every appearance of the
lust of power. Nor was their policy the same
AND MORAL CODE. 69
in Catholic and in protestant states ; but, with a
truly astonishing knowledge of human nature,
they adapted their conduct, with a statesmanlike
prudence and consistency, to the exigencies of their
position. In Catholic countries a simultaneous
attack was made on the sovereign and the nation ;
and every effort made to ingratiate and render
themselves indispensable to both. To this end,
they surrounded themselves with a dazzling shew
of peculiar sanctity, confirmed the public belief
in the inexhaustible spiritual treasures possessed
by the order, and used all possible arts to get
themselves chosen as father-confessors, in which
capacity they obtained full command over the
conscience, and thereby with little effort, over
the volition likewise, of their penitents. This
power once obtained, they contrived to maintain
it by exercising much lenity towards their spi-
ritual children, often permitting them to retain
favourite sins, under senseless, and even dis-
graceful evasions. Their policy being to insin-
uate themselves into the favour of all men, they
were consequently severe with stern, lenient
towards less straitlaced characters ; and meeting
all half-way, strove by flatteries to retain prince
and people in spiritual nonage, well aware that
70 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
those are easiest guided and ruled, who have
ceased to think for themselves : hence their con-
stant and zealous efforts to represent the natural
bent of the human mind to ponder and weigh the
articles of its faith, as sinful, and a temptation
of the evil one. But, while thus striving to blunt
the understanding, it well suited them to
inflame the imagination, and for this purpose
they cultivated the worship of the Virgin Mary
to the utmost ; inventing a number of marvel-
lous relations of the mysterious and unbounded
power exercised by her in heaven, in favour of
all who devoutly served her on earth ; even going
so far as to awaken a belief that the holy Mary
possessed more power than the second Person in
the Trinity, her Son, the Saviour ; thus exalting
the fanaticism of their founder into an article of
faith. In the same way they carried even to
idolatry the reverence for saints, especially those
of their own order, obscuring the faith of God
by such low and carnal representations. But
their deep insight into human nature suffered
them not to stop here. Well aware that unedu-
cated minds are always most easily subdued by
the dread of invisible agencies, they devised a
thousand strange tales of the craft and devices
AND MORAL CODE. 71
of evil spirits ; and, when they had thus terrified
the weak, and brought them to the verge of
despair, they interposed with their own proffered
aid, as that of beings of a superior order, to
rescue them from the toils of Satan. This was
the origin of their famous " spiritual exercises,"
which are in fact only a kind of ghostly gymn-
astics, prepared as means for repelling the temp-
tations of the devil, but in the exercise of which,
the superstitious believers are reduced to the
most implicit subjection to Jesuit guidance; a
net woven indeed with truly devilish cunning,
in which sound reason is first entangled and then
extinguished. They likewise systematically
worked on the imagination by the pomp and
splendour of their church ceremonies, so as ef-
fectually to blunt every motion towards deeper,
and holier spiritual desires ; and with this view
theatrical festivals were established, with the
whole train of imposing processions, and pom-
pous ecclesiastical ceremonies. But the conse-
quence of the Jesuit order was likewise much
advanced by their great shew of learning : nor
can it without injustice be denied that in some
sciences, more especially mathematics, their at-
tainments deserve respectful acknowledgment;
72 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
and that geology, geography, and philology have
derived many rich accessions by means of their
missions, in the establishment of which, they
displayed the most undoubted courage and the
most matchless perseverance. As they never
could be accused of monkish austerity, and were,
through the tuition of youth, associated with
numerous families in the strictest bonds of amity,
as they were moreover always particularly felici-
tous in obtaining favour with the female sex,
their influence upon the great body of the people
could not fail to be almost supreme. That
which as confessors they obtained over princes,
was less openly displayed, as was indeed ex-
pressly enjoined by their instructions; and
therefore even when their official position had
enabled them to effect the most important po-
litical arrangements, they ever kept studiously
in the back-ground, and left the world to think
the monarch had acted from his own free and
unbiassed judgment ; by which they shifted all
odium from their own shoulders upon those of
the prince. They were, however, in duty bound to
let no opportunity slip of securing and re-
taining the favour of their royal penitent, which
must be dexterously made efficient towards fur-
AND MORAL CODE. 73
tkering the general interests of their order : and
they were further enjoined, in all cases of doubt
or difficulty, in which a sovereign sought their
counsel, to refer the matter to their superior, and
obtain his decision before giving their own reply ;
in reference to which, it must be mentioned, as an
essential part of the system, that the confessions
of sovereign princes were at all times commu-
nicated to the general of the order. This was
doubtless a most criminal breach of confessional
secresy; but the crime was, as usual, excused
on the ground of the good end for which it
was committed — the advantage of the order.
Thus the Jesuit general, though residing at
Rome, was cognisant of the most secret thoughts
and designs of every Catholic prince throughout
Europe, and could by their confessors, who were
his creatures, turn and guide them as so many
puppets, according to his good pleasure, and
through them the nations likewise ; so that by
means of such kingly slaves, or rather bailiffs,
he could get every enemy of his order, every
friend of truth and liberty into his power, and
convert that royal majesty to which the nations
naturally look for protection, safety, and blessing,
into the tool of a foreign despotism.
74 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
The mode of proceeding was different in Pro-
testant countries, and there the Jesuit policy was
modified by various circumstances and the
general complexion of the times. If, for instance,
the king were a Catholic and the nation Pro-
testant, their game was to insinuate themselves
into the confidence of the former, and urge him
by suggestions, ghostly promises, encouragements,
or threats, to attempt the conversion of his
people, though sometimes at the risk of losing
crown and country. Were, however, the king a
Protestant and his people Catholic, in whole or
in part, they were stirred up against him ; he
was painted as a tyrant, accursed of God, and
his murder boldly advocated as not only un-
deserving punishment, but, since it would be com-
mitted expressly for the promotion of God's glory,
as highly meritorious in His eyes. Nor are we
at a loss for examples of the success of such doc-
trine : history furnishes us with but too many
evidences of the result of fanatical instigations in
producing regicides, who, when seized and con-
demned as atrocious malefactors, gloried in their
fate, as being martyrs for their holy faith.
Where, however, both prince and people were Pro-
testant, the Jesuits introduced themselves into
AND MORAL CODE. 75
the country in secular apparel, as merchants,
ambassadors, &c. and perhaps gave themselves out
for Protestants, and then commenced their secret
machinations, until, the trains being fairly laid,
and the field of their operations no longer re-
quiring concealment, they sprung the mine, acted
the part, though still avoiding the appearance, of
open enemies, excited to sedition, rebellion, and
civil war, and called the foul crime a holy service !
This naturally leads to a short survey of the
Jesuit code of morals : but whoever is desirous
of learning its details, and obtaining a full view
of the depths of abomination contained in it, may
be referred to a work entitled, ' Morality and
Polity of the Jesuits/ extracted by Ellen dorf,
(that admirable and too early lost contender for
truth and right) from the writings of the most
distinguished theological Jesuit authors, by
which he not only displays the infamous morality
held and inculcated by the order, but proves the
defence which has been set up, that ( the evil prin-
ciples and practices of some 200 Jesuit writers
ought not to be laid to the charge of the whole
body/ untenable, by simply shewing, ' that all
which the writers on theology, morals, and
'policy belonging to the order have 'published of
76 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT,
an evil and abhorrent nature and tendency, has
appeared with the formal approving sanction of
their superiors.
The foundation-stone of the Jesuit moral code,
as has been already stated, is the maxim that
" the end sanctifies the means : " a principle
which, were it followed by all mankind, would
soon banish good faith from human society,
and transform the most hideous crimes into
virtues ; rending asunder every holy tie, whether
of family or of state. It is the most daring
mockery ever perpetrated against the sublime
maxim of our Saviour, who in the exercise of
the highest self-sacrificing love, gave Himself
up to death for all men, — that Saviour too whose
name the society has presumed to adopt, and still
bears.
The conclusions drawn by the Jesuits from the
above sinful premises are shortly these. That
God does not, as supreme judge, estimate the
outward act, so much as the secret motive of the
actor ; and hence no action, how immoral and
criminal soever in human judgment, is really so,
unless the secret intention be evil : if therefore
an evil-doer can only assign a good motive for
his deed, or substitute an alleged for the real
AND MORAL CODE. 77
one, he is justified ! Now what follows from
this ? Not merely that every crime admits of an
after-justification, but that it may be committed
without even a scruple of conscience ! And this
frightful theory has been carried out into a per-
fect science by the Jesuits : as may be proved by
the following list of cases in which, according to
them, sin is justifiable.
A man may sin when he can cite any approv-
ing opinion of an author, as his authority for
the act : and why ? Because in that case the evil
intention does not rest with him, but with his
authority ! and this species of sin is termed pro-
bable, and the system by which it is defended
they call probabilismus. Again, a man may sin,
say they, when he conceives a lawful object may
be attained thereby : and this they denominate
the ' leadings of intention/ Once more, a man
may sin with mental reservation, (reservatio men-
talis ;) as when in uttering one assertion he thinks
of another ; and that because, say they, a man in
that case thinks to himself a limitation of his in-
tention, by which the expression becomes quite
different, to his consciousness, from what it seems
to others. A man may also sin by equivocation,
by using for example a phrase which possesses
78 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT.
various significations, and giving in his own
mind a meaning to the words employed, different
from that which the hearer understands and
believes. In this manner they justify fraud,
perjury, murder, and unchastity ; but they farther
promulgated many other sophisms, of which
modesty forbids the repetition here.
Such then is the system of morals both
preached and practised by the society which dares
to call itself ' the society of Jesus/ — a system
whose application to their policy has produced the
most fearful results. In the works of their most
celebrated writers, the idea of an original
sovereignty as residing in the people is with all
the art of sophistry made historically to appear as
the natural result of every national developement ;
and, while every just foundation for the recipro-
cal connexion between prince and people is dis-
solved, the principle is set up that the latter has
the right to depose the former, or even do away
with royalty altogether and erect another form of
government in its stead. Nor was this all : with
a horrible consistency, they deduced from such
premises the lawfulness of regicide, even while
affecting to treat only of the murder of tyrants; but
a tyrant, in the mouth of a Jesuit, was synonymous
AND MORAL CODE. 79
with any monarch who was himself a heretic or
even a protector of heretics ; who appeared to
be averse to their order, or to the Roman
hierarchy, by declining to place himself or his
people in a state of subjection to either : the
murder of such princes was unequivocally asserted
by the Jesuits to be a work ' highly conducive
to the glory of God/ Such, my countrymen,
is the crowning point of Jesuitical morality !
Can you then, who esteem good faith as highly
as lawful freedom ; to whom an oath is a holy
thing ; and who, regarding the person of your
prince as inviolable, would rather shed the last
drop of blood than permit a sacrilegious hand to
be laid upon it; can you, my noble-minded,
moral, honest-hearted countrymen, regard an
order of men as harmless, who have, under the
sanction of their superiors, published such sen-
timents as these, and never in any way either
unsaid or recalled them ? Doubtless it may be
asserted, that there have at all times existed
among the Jesuits truly noble and virtuous in-
dividuals, who in secret abhorred and scrupulously
held aloof from such abominations, whether in
principle or practice ; and who, on the contrary,
acting up to their profession, as priests of the
80 CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, ETC.
pure and sublime religion of Christ, have not
only preached love and peace, but lived and died to
promote them. But these honourable exceptions
cannot in any measure justify, far less annul the
avowed principles of their order, which exist to-
day as they did of old, upholding to the pre-
sent hour the duty of hating heretics and
persecuting all whom they denounce as such ! ye
Germans, whose fairest fame has ever been your
good faith, your loyalty, your fair dealing, be
manfully upon your guard, and defend even your
thresholds from being polluted by the entrance
of this regicide morality, as you would that your
good name should remain unspotted in the eyes
of God and man !
CHAPTER IV.
THE JESUITS, AFTER LONG AND INEFFECTUAL
STRUGGLES, AT LENGTH ESTABLISH THEIR
POWER IN FRANCE, AND FEARFULLY ABUSE
IT.
The kingdom of France was, at the period of the
Reformation, reduced to a wretched state of
anarchy and civil war ; of which, however, the Re-
formation must not bear the blame, but two power-
ful factions, who made religion the cloak of their
ambition. That headed by the Duke of Guise
inflamed the zeal of their Catholic partisans
against the Reformed, called in France at times,
Huguenots, who were persecuted with a blind
fanaticism approaching to frenzy, and an inhu-
man cruelty intended to sweep them by fire
and sword from the face of the earth.. Yet this
oppression served but to exalt the courage and to
o
82 POWER ESTABLISHED
confirm the constancy of the Huguenots, who
were strengthened by the accession to their
cause of the house of Bourbon, a branch of the
then reigning family of Valois. King Charles
IX. was at that time a minor, and his intriguing
mother, Catherine de Medicis, who was regent,
sought to hold both parties in check by leaving
them to form a counterpoise to each other. The
sagacity of Jacob Lainez, at that time general of
the Jesuits, soon perceived that this state of
things offered a most favorable conjuncture for
procuring the long-desired admittance of his
order into France, as the Catholic party could
well employ its services. But, notwithstanding
the favor shown it by the court, the society of
Jesus was constantly opposed by the parliament
and clergy of France, who were jealous of its
enormous privileges. A religious conference
being held at Poissi in 1561, with a view to form-
ing an amicable convention between the Catholic
and Huguenot parties, it was attended by Lainez
(accompanied, at the Pope's command, by Cardinal
Ferrara,) and by his subtlety and dialectic versa-
tility, against which the learned advocate of the
Huguenots was wholly unable to make head, he
not only accomplished the breaking-up of the con-
IN FRANCE. 83
ference, but succeeded by various arts in effecting
the admission of his order into France ; although
on condition of renouncing in that country the
exercise of their distinguishing privileges, and of
submitting themselves to the usual episcopal
jurisdiction. The promise was made, but with a
mental reservation which removed the necessity
of keeping it. Jesuit seminaries immediately
sprung up at Avignon, Rhodes, Moriac, Lyons,
and various other places, and were furnished
with teachers of the most brilliant talents ; while,
soon after, the Jesuit fathers built a large college
in Paris, opened their schools, and schemed to
get the university under their control ; but it
defended its independence with vigour, which led
to a law-suit between it and the Jesuits, who,
although they succeeded in bribing several advo-
cates, could not render innocuous the efforts
of Stephen Pasquier, a man of distinguished
abilities and fearless courage, who, after having at
the bar of parliament unveiled the system of the
order, added these memorable words : — " Wher-
ever the Jesuits are tolerated, neither prince nor
people are safe from their attacks. If you sanc-
tion their establishment, you will bitterly re-
pent it when it is too late ; and you will find
g 2
84 POWER ESTABLISHED
that their intrigues disturb not alone the
peace of France, but that of the universe." The
advocate general, Du Mesnil, spoke in the same
strain ; and, owing to the convincing power of
truth as exhibited by these two clear-seeing and
highly honourable men, the Jesuits w T ere for
once worsted ; upon which Lainez implored on
his knees the protection of the Pope against the
Paris University ; and the Pope was thus induced
to commend the interests of the order to the kind
offices of the metropolitan Archbishop, while the
Jesuit Possevin laboured to win the court to his
views. The consequence was, the law-suit remained
undecided, and the Jesuits obtained pemiission to
teach openly in Paris.
Soon after burst forth that horrible civil war
in France, under the abused name of religion, in
which the catholic leaders disgraced themselves
and their cause by the most shameless breach
of faith, and unheard-of blood-thirstiness. The
St. Bartholomew's eve of 1572 witnessed the
hideous scenes of that bloody tragedy, in which, by
the order of Catherine de Medicis, thousands of
Huguenots fell beneath the blow of the assassin,
and which has obtained in history the name of
the Parisian bloody marriage. It is shocking to
IN FRANCE. 85
think that this abandoned woman stimulated and
employed the fanaticism of the populace solely
for the purpose of strengthening her own power ;
for, perceiving that the Huguenots had made
some progress towards obtaining the favorable
consideration of the king her son, by which her
power was endangered, she contrived and ex-
ecuted the bloody work, perverting religion into
a cloak for intrigue and the gratification of pri-
vate passions. For this a hundred thousand
Christians were doomed to a violent death in Paris
and the provinces, (though ostensibly because
they were not Roman Catholics,) and jubilees
were celebrated in Madrid and Rome for the
success of the revolting outrage.
Charles IX. dying in 1574, his brother Henry,
a thoughtless, weak, voluptuous, and despicable
prince, mounted the throne, under whose sway
the conflict of parties continued, until in 1576, the
court was compelled to make by treaty great con-
cessions to the Huguenots. This excited the bit-
terest indignation among the fanatical catholics,
who, with the Duke de Guise at their head, formed
a confederation called the Holy League, whose
avowed object was the maintenance of ^the Roman
Catholic religion ; but its real one the deposition
86 POWER ESTABLISHED
of the reigning family; in which Philip II. of
Spain, who had long coveted the French crown,
took part, and the Jesuits acted as his zealous parti-
sans. Henry III. was assassinated, in 1589, by
a young fanatical monk named Jacob Clement, and
the Jesuits were loud in their praise of the deed
as — a divine miracle : the pope too declared
in full conclave, that the will of God was recog-
nizable therein ! — Henry of Bearne, commonly
called Henry of Navarre, now ascended the French
throne by the title of Henry the IV. — one of the
noblest princes who ever graced it, being brave,
generous, and enlightened; the friend and darling
of the commons. But by so much the more was
he an object of detestation to the league, the
Spanish court, and the Jesuits, who were unwea-
ried in their endeavours to obtain the crown of
France for the Spanish monarch, and, in pursuance
of their traitorous designs, carried on all imagi-
nable intrigues ; employing their influence in the
confessional in instigating the people to revolt,
and seducing one of their own disciples, a youth
named Jean Chatel, to become a regicide ; repre-
senting the crime as a service well-pleasing to
God, and a means of rescuing his soul from eternal
damnation.
IN FRANCE. 87
The Jesuit scholar aimed in 1594 a blow at the
king's throat, but happily only wounding him in
the lip, Henry escaped, and the examination by
torture to which the assassin was subjected,
brought to light so many Jesuit machinations,
that the parliament passed a decree banishing all
Jesuits from France as c enemies to the state and
corrupters of youth/ Chatel was torn asunder by
horses, and the Rector of the Jesuit College in
Paris hanged, and afterwards burnt. But, in spite
of the decree of banishment, the Jesuits continued
to maintain their ground, partly openly protected
by the League, and partly by assuming the dress
and character of civilians, and carried on their in-
trigues as assiduously as before. Nor was it long
before the king, yielding to the ceaseless impor-
tunities of the pope, and partly perhaps because
justly apprehensive that if he made them his
enemies, they might succeed in rekindling the
flames of civil war, consented to their residence
in France. Vainly did the parliament unite with
Henry's faithful adherents in warning him against
their principles as dangerous to the state ; he kept
his royal word, and the Jesuits were formally re-
cognized in France in 1604.
But no sooner had they obtained toleration,
88 POWER ESTABLISHED
than they again sought to domineer. The Jesuit
father Cotton became the king's confessor, and
left no stone unturned to make him suspicious of
his true friend and able minister, the Duke of
Sully, and thus effect his dismissal from office.
The Jesuit influence was likewise much furthered
at court, and among the higher nobility, by the
Queen, a bigoted Italian princess ; and they again
contrived to possess themselves of the chief direc-
tion of education, and sought to obtain control
over the university. But even while basking in
the king's favour, in accordance with his noble
principle of trying by kindness to convert foes
into friends, the Jesuits regarded him with irre-
concilable hatred, and that not only on account
of the edict of Nantes, by which he granted
freedom of conscience and a complete equality
of civil rights to all his protestant subjects,
but because they were aware of his having formed
the bold design of breaking the preponderance
of the Spanish and Austrian power, and thus,
by reducing the various European kingdoms
more nearly to an equality, restore the balance of
power, and sustain the Protestants in Germany.
This threatened the universal dominion of the
Jesuit community, and therefore Henry was not
IN FRANCE. 89
suffered to realise his plan, meeting his death, if
not by their direct contrivance, yet assuredly in
consequence of the criminal maxims disseminated
among the people, whether in the confessional,
the pulpit, or by their writings, and by which the
youth of the nation was more especially corrupted.
There was at that very time a book written by
the Jesuit Mariana, generally circulated through-
out France, in which the doctrine was asserted
and demonstrated, that every legitimate sovereign
who shall alter either the religion or the laws of
a state, is by that act outlawed, and may righ-
teously be put out of the way, either by a revolted
populace, or by individual interference, in the
shape of bowl or dagger ! Deluded by such false
and criminal theories, Francis Ravaillac, a monk
and a bigot, imagined he should do God good
service by murdering a king who was the friend
of heretics : he accordingly watched his opportu-
nity, and in the public street, stabbed Henry twice
with a dagger, of which wounds he died. After
the commission of this bloody deed, Ravaillac
suffered himself to be arrested without resistance,
his flesh was torn with red-hot pincers, and he
was afterwards pulled asunder by horses.
The indignation of the nation was loudly ex-
90 POWER ESTABLISHED
pressed against the Jesuits, who were accused of
being at least cognisant of the intended crime ;
but they were protected by the widowed Queen
and the court, and soon overcoming the last strug-
gles of the French clergy and the university of
Paris, they obtained in 1618, permission to teach
all sciences openly, and leagued themselves with
the ministry during the minority of Louis XIII.
to accomplish the entire suppression of all reli-
gious and civil liberty. But when, at an after
period, that great statesman Cardinal Richelieu,
revived the plan of Henry IV. and sought po-
litically to dissolve the predominance of Spain and
Austria, with a view as much to increasing the
external power as the internal security of France,
the Jesuits arose in all their pride of power, and
openly proclaimed in various writings the dange-
rous doctrine, that the spiritual power being su-
perior to all secular power, the latter had only
been lent to monarchs by the church, and could
be resumed by it at its pleasure. This daring as-
sumption, with the justification of rebellion and
regicide, consequent upon it, was plainly set forth
by the Jesuits Santarelle, Busenbaun, Escobar,
and many others ; and its greatest danger lay in
the art with which, appealing to the original and
IN FRANCE. 91
imprescriptible rights of nations, they sophisti-
cated and brought into discredit the notion of
freedom itself: and yet, with what zeal and sub-
tlety could they defend tyranny in all countries
where it served their purpose ! Having themselves
no country, they strove in France, as elsewhere, to
annihilate all feeling of nationality, whenever it
interfered with the carrying out of their selfish
views; and this brought them into frequent colli-
sion with right-thinking and honest minds ; but,
sagacious and pliant, aided too by their convenient
system of morals, which permits every species of
equivocation, falsehood, and even perjury, they
speedily freed themselves from all aspersions, and
triumphing over every opponent, fortified them-
selves daily more and more both in their places at
court and in their influence with the people ; and
a theological dispute afforded them a welcome
opportunity of still more strengthening and ex-
tending their power.
A Spanish Jesuit named Molina, (who died at
Madrid in 1600,) had in 1588 written a work
entitled, ' Concordia divinse gratise et liberi arbitrii/
(the agreement between divine grace and free will)
in which he made the following assertions : " That
the elect are foreordained by God, and that on
92 POWER ESTABLISHED
account of their merits; that the Divine grace which
is the source of their merit, is only operative in
them in as far as they do not resist it, and that
God accordingly bestows divine grace upon them
in those situations in which He foresees the agree-
ment of their free-will." This system, termed
after its author e Molinismus/ had occasioned
innumerable disputes, and been pronounced here-
tical by almost all orthodox divines; but, as Moli-
na was a Jesuit, his part was taken by the whole
order, which would not concede that any indivi-
dual of their order could be guilty of heresy ; and
they therefore defended Molinismus even against
the pope himself, who was notwithstanding re-
solved to condemn the doctrine ; when, just as he
was on the point of issuing the bull of condemna-
tion, the Jesuits contrived to render him an essen-
tial service, and, listening to the dictates of pru-
dence, he refrained from passing j udgment in 1611.
The order was shortly after called to sustain for-
midable attacks from two several quarters. The
deeply-learned bishop of Ypres in Holland, Cor-
nelius Jansen, had written a work under the title
of ' Augustinus ' which was printed (after his
death) in 1640. It maintained the doctrine that
' the human will is fettered by earthly desires,
IN FRANCE. 93
but that while in this state of bondage it is drawn
by God's grace to have pleasure in what is good ;
and that God being essentially goodness and truth,
therefore to love God is virtue.' The friend and co-
temporary of Jansen, the pious Du Verger, Abbot
of St. Cyran, effected by his preaching a great
reformation of manners, which had been so deeply
depraved by the diffusion of Jesuitical doctrine ;
and after his decease in 1643, his numerous disci-
ples, who held their meetings in what had formerly
been the Port-Royal monastery, (near Paris,) pro-
ceeded with courage and perseverance to follow
up his example, by the instruction of the young,
and the distribution of able publications, venturing
not only to attack and lay open the principles of
the Jesuits, but combatting the pretensions of the
Romanists. Among these men, who formed what
has been called the Port-Royal school, Arnauld
d' Andilly and Pascal particularly distinguish-
ed themselves, as the noblest champions of truth
and mental advancement in France. The Jesuit
party marked with secret rage the wide extent of
the threatened danger, and obtained from the
pope in 1653 an interdict of Jansen's book on
the ground of heresy, although his followers proved
that the passages cited as being heretical did not
94 POWER ESTABLISHED
exist in the work, which must therefore have been
condemned unread. This gave rise to a violent
dispute, as to whether the pope's infallibility
ought not to be restricted to his judicial decisions
in legal questions, or whether it must be recog-
nised even when he upheld as true what could
be disproved in point of fact.
Every one must perceive that this is downright
nonsense ; but still the Jesuits insisted on the ne-
cessity of all the world's believing the pope's ipse
dixit, whether it required the sacrifice of common
sense or not ; for unconditional faith was indis-
pensable to their attainment of that unconditional
obedience which could alone secure them in the pos-
session of the universal dominion which they sought,
under pretence of defending the papal power, to
establish for themselves. They actually suc-
ceeded in compelling every member of the French
clergy to join in executing a reciprocal bond, con-
demnatory of the Jansenian doctrine ; the most
shameless insult indeed ever offered by despotism
to liberty and reason : but the process was very
short ; whoever refused to sign was arrested, unless
he could boast the good fortune of escaping it by
a timely flight ; for the Jesuits, having the govern-
ment completely under their management, sub-
IN FRANCE. 95
jected every one against whom they had any private
pique to the most cruel persecution, under pretence
of his being a Jansenist. Few of the laity had
much acquaintance with these subtle theological
distinctions, and implicitly believed whatever the
Jesuits chose to assert : a melancholy proof in-
deed to what a pitch of stupidity the human mind
can sink, under the degrading influence of spiri-
tual bondage !
But such degradation becomes in the end the
heaviest curse of tyranny. Every class of French
society had degenerated under the pressure of an
unblushing despotism, which the Jesuits, who love
to rule over slaves, encouraged with all their arts ;
and thus, strange as it may sound, tyrannized
over the tyrants; for, the court having thrown
aside all semblance of morality, (unlimited power
naturally learning to regard itself as freed from
every restraint,) the monarch and the nobles were
equally with the mass of the people steeped in
the most unbridled debaucheries, and had lost not
merely all moral but all physical energy. Filled
with an appalling sense of their own worthlessness,
they caught, as a drowning man does at a straw,
at every offer of divine mercy, of which the Jesuits
professed themselves the privileged dispensers,
98 POWER ESTABLISHED
and which they offered at the easy price of entire
submission to their ghostly domination ; pur-
posely promoting, with satanic cunning, the moral
debasement of both king and court, even making
common cause with royal mistresses, in order
more surely and more entirely to entangle their
imbecile and miserable rulers in their net ; from
whom, when tortured by the stings of conscience
and ready to despair, they found it an easy task
to extort all sorts of concessions in favor of their
order. Hence was presented to the world that
piteous but most righteous exhibition of divine
retribution, when potentates, who held at nought
the dignity of human nature in their subjects,
were themselves reduced to be the abject slaves
of their Jesuit confessors. Louis the XIV. who
was king of France at this period, received from
his flatterers the surname of l the great/ and his
age was denominated ' the golden •/ yet, while men
of the highest talent filled both court and camp,
vying with each other in adding to the fame
and glory of the despot, he himself, while sur-
rounded with splendour and luxury, was but a
puppet in the hands of his confessor. Terrible in-
deed to France were the effects of this Jesuit rule !
for father La Chaise, aided by his royal penitent's
IN FRANCE. 97
all-powerful mistress, Madame de Maintenon, per-
suaded the king to undertake the extirpation of
the protestants; and although Louis commenced
by bribing to recantation, a sum of money being
bestowed on every Protestant who returned to the
bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, stronger
measures were soon resorted to, and Louvois, the
king's favourite, strove to please his master by
dragooning the Huguenots into orthodoxy. The
provincial intendants emulated each other in
cruelty towards the Reformed ; the bayonet and
the pistol were employed to drive them to mass ;
children were torn from their parents, women who
refused to abjure protestantism violated, the Re-
formed clergy, together with any who again threw
off the compelled profession of Catholicism, were
tortured and put to death. France appeared to
consist of but two great parties, executioners
and victims ; when, to fill up the measure of his
iniquities, Louis, yielding to the arguments of
his confessor and Louvois, revoked in 1685 the
Edict of Nantes, that fairest memorial of his grand-
father's fame ! Deceived, by the representations
of his confessor and his favourite, into the belief
that the Reformed religion was virtually extin-
guished in France, Louis regarded and treated
ii
98 POWER ESTABLISHED
the (supposed) few who still adhered to it as ob-
stinate rebels, (to whom even the last consolations
of religion were forbidden under the heaviest pen-
alties,) and compelled them to exile themselves
from their father-land, whence an abandoned
court had already banished all good faith, honesty,
and virtue. But despair lent the sufferers both
courage and dexterity, so that above 50,000 fami-
lies escaped safely to England, Holland, and the
protestant kingdoms of Germany, bringing with
them their capital, industry, and skill in various
arts, to the lands of their adoption. Meanwhile
many thousands continued to perish in France
beneath the hands of the executioner or the sabres
of the dragoons ; and that unhappy country, stript
of its population and capital, its trade depressed,
its armies weakened, and its court corrupted, pre-
sented a strikingly melancholy exhibition of the
results of Jesuit rule. Father La Chaise died,
and his place as confessor to Louis was filled by
another Jesuit, father Le Tellier, who, surpassing
his predecessor in ambition and intrigue, re-excited
the contest with the Jansenists.
A worthy priest named Quesnel, had published
a book of " Moral Contemplations on the New Tes-
tament," which, having met the unqualified ap-
Ix\ FRANCE. 99
probation of bishops and vicars, and even of the
pope himself, had for upwards of twenty years
been employed and widely circulated with great
and extensive benefit. It had however one great
fault in the eyes of the Jesuits : it contained the
principles of Jansen, and was consequently di-
rectly opposed to ' Molinismus,' of itself sufficient
to ensure their hatred of Quesnel's work ; but a
personal pique of Le Tellier's against De Noailles,
Archbishop of Paris, who had commended the
book, brought matters to a crisis. Le Tellier not
only stirred up his whole order, but the sovereign
pontiff also, against the Jansenists, until at length
in 1713, Clement XI. issued a special bull,
by which Quesnel's publication was solemnly con-
demned. This bull alarmed the whole body of
the French clergy, as in it their freedom was evi-
dently encroached on in favour of the Jesuits ; and
such was the unbounded influence of the latter,
that the court rejoiced in this papal decree, al-
though equally subversive of the rights of the
kingdom as of the church of France. The Jesuits
were loud in their triumph, and employed the
overthrow of the Jansenists and their own con-
sequent accession of power, to gratify in its fullest
extent their revenge on their opponents. Louis
H 2
100 POWER ESTABLISHED
XIV., who died about this time, (1715,) had,
three years before, while in great distress of con-
science, taken upon himself the three vows of the
order of Jesus, in the expectation of obtaining
salvation through their prevalent intercession with
God ; and now, on his death-bed, this so called
1 great king ' pronounced the fourth, as sealing
his admission to the mansions of bliss ! Such are
the occasions, such the moments, in which every
man of independent mind, were he but a beggar,
must feel himself superior to those lords of the
earth, who, when called to appear before God,
must apply to a fellow worm to stand between
them and their Creator. The regency which fol-
lowed, on account of the minority of Louis XV.,
was conferred on the Duke of Orleans, who shewed
himself unfavourable to the Jesuits, and father Le
Tellier was obliged to withdraw from court : but
they were far from losing heart, carrying on their
operations no less vigorously, though less openly,
until they at length completed their conquest of
the Jansenist party, by procuring the reception of
Clement's bull ' Unigenitus ' into France in 1720.
But, safe and unassailable as they deemed their
position, there was silently forming against them
a powerful antagonist, one too, whose rise had
IN FRANCE. 101
been much promoted by their own disputations.
Public opinion, the consciousness of the na-
tion, which no tyranny can long abuse with im-
punity, began to awake, and the ablest minds of
France were unweariedly employed in dissevering
mesh after mesh of the monstrous net of Jesuitical
influence. The proud order, lulled into presump-
tuous security by long success, either did not
perceive or did not heed, the symptoms of its
decline : and well it is for nations that tyranny
has a natural tendency to blind and enervate ty-
rants.
CHAPTER V.
WHO THE JESUITS MADE THEIR WAY INTO
SWITZERLAND, AND SOUGHT TO ESTABLISH
THEIR POWER IN THE NETHERLANDS, ENG-
LAND, AND THE NORTHERN STATES OF EUROPE.
The Jesuits entered Switzerland in 1574, and ob-
tained their first permanent settlement in Lucerne,
whose example was speedily followed by Friburg,
where the influence of their presence was soon
traceable in the fresh energy of resistance of the
Roman Catholic to the Lutheran party, amount-
ing almost to hostile opposition and attempts at
conversion by force. So early appeared the
germs from which has sprung a fruitful harvest
of discord, perpetuated even to the present hour.
How often might not the morning and evening-
glow which gilded the towering Alps have seemed
to the contemplative mind, the blush of shame
THE JESUITS IN SWITZERLAND. 103
for the degradation of those dwellers in what were
once the homes of freedom, now become the
voluntary bondsmen of Italian masters ! But
who, that had recognised the blush on the lofty-
brows of those God-appointed guardians of
Helvetia, could have ventured to point out its
meaning, without justly dreading that the life of
a freeman would pay the penalty of his truthful-
ness, beneath the axe or the dagger of fanaticism ?
The Jesuits took incredible pains and em-
ployed countless arts to obtain a footing in the
Low Countries, then belonging to the Spanish
line of the house of Austria. Jacob Lainez dis-
played peculiar activity in this work, and pro-
ceeded in person thither, to aid in subduing the
dislike and opposition of the natives : he finally
succeeded, chiefly through the influence of the
Spanish court, and by the help of the well-
filled purses of Spanish merchants resident in the
Netherlands, in establishing in Lowen, Antwerp,
and other important cities, colleges and houses of
the professed. A firm footing having been thus
secured, the Jesuits exerted themselves with the
same zeal in promoting the Spanish interest in
the Low Countries as they had done in France ;
but the preponderance of a Spanish interest was
104 THE JESUITS IN HOLLAND.
painfully wounding to the national feeling of the
inhabitants, whom Philip II. sought to deprive
of liberty of conscience and many other ancient
and chartered rights, and to force upon them the
detested Spanish inquisition. He despatched
his captain-general, the Duke of Alva, into the
country, at the head of a powerful army, who,
more in the spirit of a ruthless executioner than
of a military commander, seized the noblest
patriots, delivering them over to death as traitors,
and imposed intolerable burthens on the people,
by which their prosperity was threatened with
utter annihilation. The common danger roused
all classes to a bold and unanimous appeal to arms ;
the provinces of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht,
Gueldres, Groningen and Friesland, signed
a confederation on the 23rd of January, 1579,
under the name of the united provinces ; and in
1581, having placed prince William of Orange
at their head, declared themselves independent
of the Spanish yoke. The Catholic provinces
adhered to the house of Austria. In this strug-
gle for freedom, the Jesuits played the part of
the abettors of tyranny, and were therefore im-
mediately chased out of the liberated provinces.
So much the more implacable became their hatred
THE JESUITS IN BELGIUM. 105
fo the prince William of Orange, the magnanimous
and powerful protector of Dutch freedom, as well
as to all his house ; and when the price of 250,000
scudi was set on his head by Philip of Spain,
a Biscayan fanatic, named Taureguy, first ima-
gined the plan, which on his failure was adopted
by Balthasar Gerard of Burgundy, of earning at
once the offered price of blood, and everlasting
happiness in heaven, by assassinating the noble
and unsuspecting victim. It is an ascertained
fact, that the last-named miscreant, who shot the
prince at Delft in 1584, was confirmed by the
arguments of a Jesuit at Treves in the belief that
he should, come what might of his attempt,
attain the glory and bliss of a martyr. He suc-
ceeded but too well in shedding the blood of one
of the noblest leaders in the cause of liberty ; and
although, as was the natural consequence of
popular indignation, he suffered for the crime in
a very barbarous manner, the canons of Herzo-
genbusch had the audacity to cause Te Deum
to be publicly and solemnly sung in honour of the
infamous deed : and in a like spirit the murder
of his son, prince Maurice, by a poor superstitious
wretch, was lauded by the Jesuits as "a work well
pleasing to God."
106 THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND.
On these accounts the States-General of the
united provinces issued a decree, strictly prohibit-
ing the attendance of their countrymen on foreign
Jesuit seminaries. But these occurrences no
ways induced the order to relinquish its designs on
the united provinces, or to forbear from sending
from the adjoining Catholic provinces, where, as
appertaining to Spain, they had full liberty to
reside, spies and emissaries to gain over adherents,
more especially such as possessed government in-
fluence, to the Roman Catholic faith. Disguised
Jesuits were likewise scattered throughout the
provinces, under various characters , who sent
regular accounts of passing events in private
despatches to their general and the Pope : and
thus for above a century and a half there resided
a succession of secret and unsuspected enemies
to the state and to the nation, exercising all sorts
of artifices for the furtherance of the designs of
their superiors, and braving, with a courage
worthy a holier cause, the not inconsiderable
danger of possible discovery.
Their policy was similar in England, where
the great Elizabeth had established an indepen-
dent national Church, for which Pius V.
anathematised her, released all her subjects from
THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND. 107
their oaths of allegiance, and excited the Catho-
lic princes to seek her destruction. Philip II.
of Spain and the Cardinal of Lorraine founded
both at Douay and Rheims, colleges for English
Catholics, where the Jesuits trained them up, — by
inculcating the belief that the pope was empowered
by God to depose and destroy disobedient princes,
— to become the bigoted enemies of the heretical
and maligned Queen. When, therefore, these
young men returned to England, they caballed to
dethrone Elizabeth and overthrow her church, and
even made more than one attempt upon her life.
Jesuits stole disguised into Britain for the pur-
pose of instigating the people and some discon-
tented nobles to open insurrection, for which
they had the double motive of promoting at once
the papal and the Spanish interests ; for Philip
II. aimed not only at the possession of France
but of England, — aimed in truth at universal
monarchy, and whilst longing to behold the
whole world subject to his sway, sought with
equal eagerness the extension of the Roman Ca-
tholic creed, simply because it was his own.
Similarity of views and community of interests
bound the Jesuits to his party, actuated by regard
less for the Roman Catholic faith itself, than for the
108 THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND.
accession of power which its spread would ensure
to their order. But their intrigues and conspiracies
were detected, and as English law no longer
recognised the ancient privilege called ( benefit of
clergy/ the Jesuits were tried, condemned, and
executed, on the same footing as other criminals ;
and the remainder were, in 1602, banished by the
Queen from every part of her dominions, as
enemies to the state, and corrupters of the people,
and prohibited from ever again setting foot on
English ground. The Jesuits, on their part,
extolled their condemned brethren as holy mar-
tyrs, and renewed their seditious attempts with
undiminished courage. Elizabeth was succeeded
on the British throne by James I., who de-
sired to tolerate Boman Catholicism in England,
although he did not dare to make it the domin-
ant religion, in opposition to the wishes of the
larger proportion of his subjects. This conces-
sion to the feelings of the nation, embittered
the Catholic party, whom the Jesuits stirred up
to the greatest animosity against both the king
and parliament, so that at length some fanatics
laid a scheme for blowing up both houses of
parliament, on the first day of their meeting,
(the 5th of November, 1605,) on which occasion
THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND. 109
the king would likewise be present to open the
proceedings. The conspirators confessed to a
Jesuit named Girard, received from him the
sacrament, and swore upon the host to observe the
strictest secresy respecting the plot, which was
known to the provincial Garnet and many others of
the brotherhood. The monstrous scheme was frus-
trated by the private affection of one of the con-
spirators for his brother-in-law, which induced
him to write an anonymous warning against
going to the opening of parliament ; suspicion
being thus excited, the cellars under the houses
of parliament were examined, and thirty-six barrels
of gunpowder found concealed in them. The
conspirators too had been forewarned, and fled in
consequence, but were pursued, and some made
prisoners, among whom was the provincial Garnet,
who was convicted and executed along with the
others. Parliament now passed a resolution, that
every Catholic in the kingdom should take an
oath of allegiance to the king, without regard
to any papal injunction ; and almost all took the
prescribed oath, except the Jesuits, who refused,
and tried to induce others to join in their oppo-
sition : upon which James issued a proclamation
banishing all Jesuits from the realm, although
110 THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND.
he was secretly more favourably disposed to
Catholic tenets than he dared to avow.
His son and successor, Charles I., in conse-
quence of various infractions of the rights and
inclinations of his people, was deposed, and in 16-19
beheaded. The restoration of his son Charles II. ,
a weak voluptuary, did not take place till 1660;
and the reign of this dissolute monarch, which
lasted twenty five years, was highly favourable to
the increase of the Jesuitical influence. But the
operation of principles equally foreign and hos-
tile to the general sentiments of the nation was
felt so oppressive, as to call forth the most
determined resistance ; and the opposition forced
from the reluctant hands of religious and poli-
tical despotism, the concession of the Test and
Habeas Corpus acts ; the latter the most precious
jewel of the British constitution, and the former
opposing a barrier to the spring-tide of Jesuitism,
by excluding all Catholics from holding public
offices. The courage of the Jesuits, however, was
by no means damped ; on the contrary, they but
displayed greater zeal for the maintenance of
their power and influence in Britain, and already
counted on having gained the day, when James
II., an avowed Catholic, succeeded to his brother's
THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND. Ill
throne, and made no concealment of his desire
to restore the dominance of the Roman Catholic
religion. James abolished the Test Act, and
committed to the Tower such bishops of the
Anglican Church as objected to the concession.
At length the Jesuits, by means of his confessor,
who was one of their fraternity, ruled so arbi-
trarily the conscience of this weak and bigoted
prince, as to drive him into measures which
entirely alienated from him the affections of the
nation ; and the general exasperation burst forth
when his Queen presented him with a son, which
was currently reported to be no scion of royalty,
but a child surreptitiously interpolated by the
Jesuits, for the purpose of disinheriting the pre-
sumptive heiress to the crown, the protestant
daughter of James II, and spouse of William
of Orange, stadtholder of the united provinces
of the Netherlands. A large proportion of the
British nobility having invited William to take
possession of the throne in the room of his
father-in-law, he landed on the English coast in
1688, with a considerable army ; was received
with joyful acclamation by the nation, as the
saviour of their religious and civil liberty ; and
James II. was forced to fly to France, forsaken in
112 THE JESUITS IN SWITZERLAND.
misfortune even by the Jesuits, who reluctantly
saw a final period put to their political influence
in England.
The Lutheran faith had been introduced into
Sweden by its magnanimous king Gustavus
Vasa, and his brave Swedes clung to it with a
true and loyal affection. But John III, his son
and successor, an imbecile prince, inclined to
Popery ; and when this reached the ears of the
Jesuits, they soon contrived to enter Sweden in
disguise ; and father Possevin induced the king
in 1578, to go over to the Romish Church, and
educate his son Sigismund in its tenets. Sigis-
mund, (who was elected in 1587, likewise king
of Poland,) was wholly under the guidance of
the Jesuits, who misled him, in direct opposition
to the will of the Swedish nation, to the adop-
tion of such unwise and unjust measures that
his subjects declared him to have forfeited the
crown of Sweden; and raised in 1604, his uncle
Charles IX. to the throne. Charles was succeed-
ed in 1611, by his son Gustavus Adolphus,
whose fame will last as long as a heart-pulse for
freedom beat in a human breast, for he was a
God-appointed shield and buckler to liberty of
conscience. His glorious death on the bloody
THE JESUITS IN SWITZERLAND. 113
battle-field of Liitzen in 1632, made his daughter
Christina, Queen of Sweden, a woman of brilliant
talents, but equally distinguished for strange
humours and great fickleness of purpose. The
Jesuits set their hearts on converting this
princess to popery ; concluding that if they could
bring over the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus
to the Church of Rome, the effect would be
powerfully felt throughout the Protestant world.
They succeeded ; Christina renounced the crown
in 1654, in favour of her cousin Charles Gustavus,
and in 1655 the faith of her heroic father,
and betook herself to Rome, where she was
received with much distinction by the Pope.
But the efforts and hopes of the Jesuits to work
their pleasure in Sweden proved as futile as
those of Christina, after the death of Charles
Gustavus in 1660, to regain possession of the
throne. The Swedes remained stedfast to their
creed, and refused to have any thing to do with
a Queen who would have brought a host of
Jesuits in her train.
But the progress of the brotherhood in Poland
was on the other hand proportionally great.
Bishop Ereneland had founded a College of the
order so early as 1569 in Braunsberg, a town
i
114 THE JESUITS IN SWITZERLAND.
of Prussia, at that time dependent on Poland;
and establishments in Pultusk, Posen, Riga,
and Wilna, soon followed. Under the royal
favour of Sigismund, the order spread with
astonishing rapidity, attained a high reputation,
and entirely monopolizing the tuition of the
young nobility, secured thereby great influence
in state affairs. Towards the end of the sixteenth
century their hopes were high of obtaining a
settlement in Russia, on occasion of the Czar
I wan IV. seeking the mediation of the pope to
procure peace with Poland; but although the
pontiff sent thither the zealous father Possevin, to
try to convert the Russians from the Greek to the
Roman Church, his efforts were at that time
vain. When, however, in 1655, the impostor
Otrepiew gave himself out for the young Czar
Demetrius, the Jesuits in Poland lent zealous
aid to place him on the throne, in the hope of
thereby attaining their views upon Russia ; and
on the scheme proving successful, the grateful
Demetrius erected a college at Moscow. But
when, after the lapse of one year, the deception was
discovered and the impostor put to death, the
Jesuits were dismissed [from Russia. Still,
however, with their characteristic perseverance,
THE JESUITS IN SWITZERLAND. 115
they cherished hopes of ultimate settlement, and
continued to send secret emissaries into the
country, until the mighty Czar Peter the Great,
published in 1719 an Ukase, which prohibited a
Jesuit to be seen in Russia.
Often have princes of Germany lent a favour-
able ear to the voice of Russia ; oh ! that they
would but listen and give heed to those memo-
rable words of Peter the Great ! f I know, '
said he, ' that a large proportion of the Jesuits
are highly educated, and in that respect capable
of doing great service to the state : but I likewise
know, that they use their religion as the instru-
ment of promoting their private ends ; that their
pious exterior hides an immeasurable ambition,
and a complicated web of intrigue, the sole object
of which is the extension or the fortifying of
Papal, or rather of Jesuit rule in every state in
Europe; that their seminaries are but the en-
gines of their tyranny ; that they are too rest-
lessly unquiet to leave the smallest hope that
they will refrain from intermeddling in the affairs
of my empire ; and therefore I decline receiving
them into it, and cannot but wonder that any
court in Europe should be able to shut its eyes
to their deceitful behaviour/
I 2
CHAPTER VI.
WHAT DOES GERMANY OWE TO THE JESUITS ?
We have already stated the means by which the
society of Jesus obtained permanent establish-
ment, great power, and distinguished [ celebrity,
in Bavaria, in Austria, and on the Rhine ; as well
as the sagacious manner in which its influence
was employed with court, nobles, and people.
But even Austria, Bavaria, and the banks of the
Rhine afforded too narrow a theatre for their
operations ; and they sought the reestablishment
of Roman Catholicism, as a means of establishing
their own sway throughout the length and breadth
of Germany, and maintaining it in the name of
the pope and by the power of superstition. For
the accomplishment of this object two different
engines were found available, — fraud and force.
THE JESUITS IN GERMANY. 117
The religious differences of the Protestants, es-
pecially the contentions of the Lutherans and
Calvinists, and the jealousy of the princes, un-
happily lightened their labours and facilitated
their efforts to sow the seeds of discord. Worm-
ing themselves, under every imaginable disguise
and device, into the courts of protestant princes,
into the bosom of protestant families, and into
every grade of society, they began with the
utmost caution their attempts at proselytism,
assuming for the time being, whatever profession
of faith they found to be in the ascendant ; and
so soon as the confidence of the wholly unsus-
picious protestants was gained, they artfully se-
duced them into the gloomy regions of mysticism,
whence the path was neither long nor difficult by
which they were led into the Romish Church,
as the guiding star of salvation from the dan-
gerous labyrinth of error. Having so far gained
upon the protestants as to induce them to a
secret renunciation of their former faith, the Je-
suits, as well for their own safety as for the
purpose of carrying on their machinations un-
disturbed, generally gave the new converts a
dispensation to retain the outward profession of
protestantism, and even to frequent protestant
118 THE JESUITS IN GERMANY.
places of worship, demonstrating to them that
such hypocrisy, whether practised for their own
ease or for the purpose of procuring them access
to others, in order to attempt their conversion,
might, by the sophism of mental reservation, be
made not only innocent but commendable.
But in those parts of Germany where the popu-
lation was divided into catholic and protestant,
they kindled the fanaticism of the former, not
only by the usual engines of the confessional,
the pulpit, and the " Spiritual Exercises," but
chiefly by denouncing what they termed mixed
marriages, that is marriages between catholics
and protestants, as a deadly sin, insuring eternal
damnation to the catholic contracting party ; thus
destroying, with a truly satanic policy, the most
innocent and most sacred rights of human nature,
and at the same time undermining the security
of the state, by uprooting two of its surest foun-
dations, the dignity and the concord of married
life. Lastly, in countries either purely catholic,
or where Catholicism was the dominant religion,
the Jesuits introduced the full torrent of their
superstition, pushing it to absolute madness and
idolatry, reducing the people to such a state of
mental imbecility, as to render them for a time
THE JESUITS IN GERMANY. 119
incapable of comprehending the truth, in the
same way as one long imprisoned in dungeon
gloom is unable to endure the light or to use his
limbs, and naturally grasps at any hand held
out to guide him forwards. But the supersti-
tion fostered by the Jesuits was productive of a
still more terrible result, that of immorality,
which the Jesuits both personally gave example
of, and tolerated in all such princes and nobles
as put themselves under their governance. Oh !
my country ! the feet of such men, who knew
no country and therefore had none to lose, who
bore honey on their lips but gall in their hearts,
were on thy neck ! No prince, no people was safe
from the artifices of these foreign vampyres, and
some nations, alas, were not safe from their own
princes ! And yet, unhappy land of my fathers,
even this was not all the load of misery for
which thou hast to thank the Jesuits ! When
fraud seemed unadvisable, open force was often
resorted to, with full reliance on support from
the royal families of Austria and Bavaria at least,
who were wholly devoted to the Jesuit interest.
Having established their schools in the Tyrol, in
the cities of Innspruck and Halle ; in Munich in
1559, in Dillingen in 1563, and soon after in
120 THE JESUITS IN GERMANY.
Franconia and Swabia, their fame as nurseries
of learning and pillars of the ancient faith, became
increasingly noised abroad, and they were held in
high estimation by the Catholic princes; while their
Jesuit founders, with an energy and perseverance
peculiarly their own, sought, and unhappily
obtained, an ever-extending sphere of operation.
Under the reign of the high-minded emperor,
Maximilian XL (from 1564 till 1576) they
experienced indeed very considerable difficulty
in forwarding their plans of a counter-revolu-
tion ; for Maximilian upheld religious tolera-
tion with a firm hand ; but his weak-minded
son, Rudolph II. was wholly under their con-
troul; and the accession in 1619 of the Arch-
duke Ferdinand of Styria to the imperial dignity,
under the title of Ferdinand II, introduced the
golden age of the Jesuits, the iron age of our
country ! Ferdinand II, and Maximilian of
Bavaria, both disciples of the Jesuits, had in
early youth imbibed from their teachers the
dreadful doctrines that " no faith should be kept
with heretics/' and that "every protestant subject
is a rebel ; " and both princes, alas, acted in con-
sonance with these doctrines. Maximilian of Ba-
varia placed himself, in 1609, at the head of the
THE JESUITS IN GERMANY. 121
German Catholic princes, who formed a confe-
deration, termed the League, against the protes-
tants. Hatred, arising from difference of creed,
grew daily on both sides, and each party stood
in arms against the other, while heavy and dark
gathered the threatening thunder- cloud of a re-
ligious civil war, upon the horizon of Germany !
The storm burst in 1618. The protestant mem-
bers of the Bohemian diet, finding all efforts
fruitless to obtain their irrefragable rights in
matters of conscience, resolved to seek them by
force of arms, hurled, in the fury of desperation,
the imperial governor from one of the windows
of his palace in Prague, and drove away and ba-
nished the Jesuits as enemies of the kingdom,
violators of the king's letters patent, and ori-
ginators of all evil in Bohemia. Similar events
occurred in Moravia and Silesia, and gave rise to
the thirty years' war, which proved a welcome op-
portunity to the Jesuits of shewing their influence
with both Maximilian and Ferdinand, bidding
bold defiance to their enemies, and satisfying in
full their thirst for vengeance. The powerful
aid of Maximilian having enabled Ferdinand
to win the battle of the White Hill, near Prague,
in 1620, the submission of Bohemia followed of
122 THE JESUITS IN GERMANY.
course ; and the emperor not only deprived the
Bohemians of every vestige of religious liberty,
but caused a frightful massacre of all who had
taken arms in defence of their country. He also
restored the Jesuits in triumph, putting them in
possession of the Prague university, and bes-
towing on them not only a large proportion of
the confiscated estates of those he termed rebels,
(that is, all who refused to acknowledge him as
their lawful sovereign,) but of his own domains
likewise. The Jesuits were meanwhile no ways
remiss in stirring up the religious zeal of the
emperor; who recognised no higher duty than
that of annihilating heretics, and gloried in
being called, ( a son of the society of Jesus.'
Thirty years of war and rapine rest with
heavy weight on the memory and name of the
Jesuits, and vet the God of their fathers had
not forsaken the Germans ! He summoned
the pious Gustavus Adolphus from far distant
Sweden, and commissioned him to defend reli-
gious liberty. The German protestants nocked
to his standard, and even after his lamented fall
at Lutzen, his spirit continued to lead and ani-
mate them, seeming to sound in their ears amid
the thunders of battle, his faith- exciting and
THE JESUITS IN GERMANY. 123
spirit-stirring hymn, c Ein fester Burg ist unser
Gott. } (God is our fortress and defence.) So
that the Jesuits, despite their triumphant hopes
and haughty anticipations, were yet compelled to
relinquish their presumptuous scheme of ruling
over all Germany, and were fain to confine them-
selves to those portions of it in which they had
most firmly entrenched themselves. The thirty
years' war having been brought to a close by the
Westphalian peace in 1648, Pope Innocent X.
anathematised the work of amity ; and the in-
dignation of the Jesuits was loudly expressed,
because by it protestants and catholics were
placed on the same footing in regard of civil
rights.
But amid these scenes of war and misery, of
savage cruelty and fanatical intolerance, the me-
mory of one truly venerable Jesuit is embalmed
in every German heart, — the Jesuit Frederick
Spee, (born in Kaiserswerth in 1595, and who
died at Treves, 1635,) a man of genuine piety,
and the only German poet of his age. He was spe-
cially distinguished as the first who, by his work,
f Cautio criminalis/ published in 1631, com-
batted the gloomy illusion of witchcraft, a su-
perstition which, under the management of
124 THE JESUITS IN GERMANY.
cunning priests and venal judges, infected the
minds of the people like a plague, and occasioned
the legal murder of many thousand victims. To
demonstrate the madness and blasphemy of
this superstition, demanded in that day no small
degree of courage, for it involved the risk of
being regarded and punished as an accomplice.
Frederick Speeds publication opened the way for
the exercise of sound judgment on this subject
in Germany, in which he was vigorously followed
by the profoundly learned Thomasius, (born
1655, died 1728,) and many other illustrious in-
dividuals. The philanthropic merits of Frederick
Spee deservedly rank higher in Germany than
all the writings of his order put together, for they
were truly conducive to the honour of God, and
were a vindication of human nature. But even
the Westphalian treaty of peace did not check
the restless activity of the Jesuits ; and in the first
twenty or thirty years of the eighteenth century,
they played the part of spies and deadly persecutors
towards the protestants in the Salzburg dis-
trict, where, at their instigation, the most fearful
cruelties were practised : children torn from their
parents, married persons forcibly separated, men
and women, infants and greybeards, led to torture
THE JESUITS IN GERMANY. 125
and to death, because they would not acknow-
ledge the Roman Catholic to be the only saving
faith. Such were the deeds of the Jesuits ;
the consequence was the emigration of innume-
rable honest, moral, and industrious protestants,
from the country around Salzburg, who were
received in Sweden, the Netherlands, and above
all, in Prussia, with open arms.
The evil of Jesuit influence even upon the
noble mind of the empress Maria Theresa was
painfully felt by her protestant subjects so late
as 1752, especially in Carinthia, Styria, and upper
Austria. Thus on the 18th of October of that
year a religious mission was ordained for the
extirpation of heterodoxy in Carinthia, in which
it was directed that if a peasant died whose
widow is suspected of not holding fully orthodox
opinions, her children should be taken from her,
and placed where no suspicion of heresy existed.
The protestants in Carinthia, Styria, and upper
Austria were punished, on account of religion,
with imprisonment, scourging, confiscation of
goods, deprivation of their children and spouses ;
while neither the liberty of observing even pri-
vately their own forms of worship, nor emigration
to more tolerant countries was permitted to them !
126 THE JESUITS IN GERMANY.
Still there were many parts of Germany in
which the Jesuits were far from being so com-
pletely lords of the ascendant ; and in these their
secret exertions to obtain converts were but the
more zealous and unwearied, as well as their
generally too successful efforts to stir up strife
between catholics and protestants; while in
countries where, as in Bavaria and Austria, they
were wholly uncontrolled, they ceased not to
check by every means they could devise, the
voice of truth, the improvement of the people,
and the march of intellect among mankind at
large. But preeminent in mischief were their
exertions in the catholic cantons in Switzerland,
where the descendants of those brave spirits who
once risked life and fortune in defence of liberty,
were seen reduced to abject submission by hypo-
critical monks, and the once heroic compatriots of
Tell, contentedly enslaved in the chains of a dis-
graceful and stolid bondage !
CHAPTER VII.
THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, TOGE-
THER WITH THEIR ASIATIC AND AMERICAN
MISSIONS.
The success of the Jesuits in Spain and Portugal
was, by their shameful abuse of it, converted
into their greatest curse. Their misconduct
in Spain, it is true, was much less detrimental to
their cause than in Portugal, simply because
less offence was excited in the former than in the
latter country, where they stood in constant and
evident opposition to the national interests. In
Spain, on the contrary, their covert practices were
shrouded in the all-pervading mystery in which
she hid herself from the eyes of the world, and
their spiritual tyranny was merged in that policy
of the Spanish monarch which the Jesuits so
zealously and so uniformly supported. ^ And yet
the policy which has received the appellation of
128 THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
'the Spanish interest/ (namely the efforts of
Philip II. to establish a universal monarchy,)
contributed in reality to destroy the true interests
of Spain, whose treasures, however full and free,
were the streams in which they flowed in upon
her from the new world, w T ere thereby squan-
dered ; her prosperity was lowered and almost ex-
hausted by the oppressions of intolerance ; and
her people, so noble in their native capabilities,
so illustrious in the fame of their fathers,
learned to forget their feelings of nationality,
while groaning beneath an unrelaxing ghostly
dominion. Thus the Spanish power, which at
Philip's accession was the terror of Europe, be-
came in process of time little more than an
upright, royal corpse, wrapped in purple, to pre-
vent the cadaverous hue of death being observed,
and its lifeless stiffened limbs moved as those of
a puppet by monkish wires and springs, to give
it some appearance of animation ; while the nation,
sunk in apathy, scarcely observed the deception,
still feeling the regular movement of the govern-
ment machine, before which it had so long sub-
mitted to be harassed.
In Portugal a different posture of affairs served
to place the intrigues of the Jesuits in a much
THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 129
stronger light, more especially on the demise of
their friend and patron John III. The education
of his successor, Don Sebastian, still a minor,
being committed to them, they gave him a
Jesuit confessor, and soon attained to such a
height of influence, as to fill almost every office in
the state with their creatures. Besides which,
they contrived to vex and mortify the queen
mother to such a degree, that she relinquished
the regency in 1562, in favour of the cardinal In-
fanta Don Henry, a poor weak prince, who paid
implicit obedience to their will. In 1568, Don
Sebastian having assumed the reins of govern-
ment, their rule became quite unbounded; in
their zeal for the promotion of the Spanish and
Austrian interest, they hindered the marriage of the
young king with a princess of France, and finally
engaged him in a war with the Moors in Africa,
in which he lost his life in 1578. The old car-
dinal, Don Henry, now ascended the throne of
Portugal; but Philip II. of Spain, having de-
termined on becoming master of that kingdom,
found zealous supporters of his scheme in the
Jesuits. Henry dying in 1580, Philip conquered
Portugal, and of course advanced his ghostly
partisans to still higher favour and power. The
K
130 THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
nation indeed detested and execrated the foreign
tyrant, but its indignation was powerless j the
Jesuits and the Spanish Inquisition depressed the
national spirit, and being involved by Spain in
her contests with the Netherlands, Portugal paid
the penalty in the loss of most of her East Indian
possessions. Meanwhile, the moral corruption
attendant on Jesuit rule became every day more
apparent in the kingdom, and the haughty order
soon began to show their unwillingness to rule
by borrowed authority, and their determination
henceforth to domineer over the Portuguese in
propria persona. This bold design was es-
pecially evidenced during the government of
Philip IV. from 1621 — 1665. Having accom-
plished the placing of a man at the head of the
Inquisition in Portugal, who had two brothers in
the Jesuit order, a most deplorable effect of this
appointment on the literature and spirit of the
nation, was the introduction of the Roman
Catholic censorship, under the terrific control
of the court of the Inquisition ! The intolerable
oppression exercised by the Spanish government,
in imposing heavy taxes, and other official exac-
tions, began at last to rouse the national resent-
ment, and produce a reaction which ended in
THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 131
throwing off the detested foreign yoke. Duke
John, a descendant of the ancient house of Bra-
ganza, was proclaimed king in 1640, and con-
firmed by the Cortes in 1641, rightful sovereign
of Portugal, by the title of John IV. The
Jesuits were prudent enough to conform them-
selves to the exigency, congratulated the monarch
on his accession, and soon contrived to gain his full
confidence, so that he even entrusted his son
Theodosius to their tuition, and they trained him
strictly in their own principles : but the prince
died while still young. On the death of John IV.
in 1656, his widow, queen Louisa, who, as regent,
carried on the government during the minority
of her son, gave herself up entirely to the
guidance of the Jesuits ; but when Alphonso VI.
a wild and dissolute youth, came to the helm of
affairs, they readily foresaw the termination of
their power, should he continue on the throne,
for they knew he hated them ; and they therefore
engaged in a conspiracy with his ambitious
brother, Don Pedro, and his bride, a princess of
Nemours, to deprive Alphonso of the crown.
The plan was successful; Alphonso was taken
prisoner in his palace in 1G67 : Don Pedro be-
came regent, and in 1683 king of Portugal. As
k 2
132 THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
might naturally be expected, he promoted his
allies, the Jesuits, to the first offices of state ; nor
can it be denied that they manifested a sagacity
and prudence which fully justified his confidence.
They brought about in 1673 a financial arrange-
ment, under which the Jews were relieved from
the cruel persecutions of the Inquisition by the
payment of large sums, which were in turn applied
to the reconquest of the Portuguese American
colonies ; while their possessions in Brazil ex-
tended to the river de la Plata.
And here we may naturally advert to the subject
of the Jesuit missions in foreign lands. We have
already alluded to the noble enthusiasm with
which Franciscus Xavier had forced his way to the
uttermost borders of Asia, and carried the banner
of the cross even into Japan. His brethren emu-
lated his sublime example with unwearied per-
severance, and Europe was soon filled with won-
der at the reports of the missionaries, regarding
the many souls annually won to Christianity by
their labours. The Jesuits, it is true, united
objects of self-interest with their ghostly exer-
tions, neglecting neither the extension of their
trade nor of their dominion, and on these grounds,
quite as much as from a desire to monopolize
THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 133
spiritual conquests, permitted no intermeddling
of other religious orders : but still their exertions
in spreading the knowledge of religious ideas,
must ever remain a high merit, which cannot be
denied to the disciples of Loyola. Moreover,
they conducted themselves, generally speaking,
with much tenderness and moderation towards
the religious conceptions, habits, and prejudices
of the natives ; and although this has often been
made a reproach to them, yet the first promulga-
tors of Christianity in Germany acted on the
same plan, which was assuredly better calculated
to effect a permanent establishment of the new
doctrines in Asia, than if they had been propaga-
ted by fire and sword, as the Dominicans have
frequently done.
But the Portuguese commerce was too intimate-
ly linked with the conversions of the Jesuits, for
the Dutch; after they had once found their way to
Japan, to be able to look quietly on at their suc-
cess : and Dutch jealousy gave the first blow to
the trade of the one and the missions of the other.
In the first half of the seventeenth century a
general persecution broke out in Japan,, in which
countless numbers of converts sealed, amid tor-
134 THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
ture and death, their fidelity to the faith of Jesus
with astonishing constancy.
The spread of Christianity in China was, from
1581, much furthered by the efforts of father
Mattheus llicci, whose learning, and that of the
other brethren, procured them much consideration
in China : he died in 1610, much and generally
lamented. Five years later, a great persecution
arose in China also, but the power of the Jesuits
revived with new splendour towards the middle of
the 17th century, chiefly through the distinguished
mathematical attainments of father Adam Schall.
Europe, as has been already stated, derived,
during a long period, the most important scientific
information respecting that remarkable empire in
the far east, — a desert far outweighing any faults
of which they were guilty ; whilst undeniably
through their efforts the essential doctrines of
Christianity were maintained through all the
vicissitudes of after times.
In the Spanish territory of Paraguay, in South
America, the Jesuits founded a kingdom of their
own. They entered the country in 1586, with
the view of preaching Christianity to the natives ;
but all their exertions were well nigh frustrated
by the misconduct of the Spaniards, who, having
THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 135
founded colonies in the neighbourhood, treated
the inhabitants like slaves, and by their harsh
tyignny rendered Christianity itself, as being the
faith they professed, and sought to enforce, hate-
ful to their victims. The Jesuit missionaries, per-
ceiving this, represented the matter unreservedly
to the king of Spain, and proposed that he should
dismiss the Spanish governor, and empower them,
the Jesuits, to settle in the country, and take the
oversight of the savages whom they might convert;
so that they might, like the primitive Christians,
live in peace and concord, the king of Spain re-
maining perpetual sovereign of the country.
Philip III. agreed to this plan, and the mission-
aries set instantly to work to put it in execution.
By gentleness and kindness they won the hearts
of the simple natives, converted many to the
Christian faith, and infused a love of order and
social life into their wild natures. They taught
them to build houses, gave them laws, and, what
was still more, led them to understand and to
respect them, introduced the blessings of Euro-
pean civilisation, arts, and sciences, and, in short,
became in every sense their friends and benefac-
tors. But alas ! this purely humane connexion
between the Jesuits and their spiritual children,
136 THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
degenerated but too soon; unable to resist the
temptations to acquire dominion and wealth, the
Jesuits speedily began to pervert the veneration
felt for them by the untutored natives of Para-
guay, to the promotion of the worldly advantage
of their order. This was facilitated by the
arrangements made by them ; according to which
no one should possess private property, but all
the fruits of the general industry were gathered
into large storehouses, from which the fathers
distributed to each that which he actually required
for his support. In addition to this power over
the wealth of the community, they likewise de-
rived immense sums from the plantations, es-
pecially from those termed Paraguay Herbaries,
in which were cultivated various plants used in
medicine. Santa Fe, Buenos Ayres, and Tukuman,
were the chief depots of their Brazilian trade.
Alarmed for the security of their dominion, no
less than desirous of retaining a monopoly of its
commerce, they carefully secluded each^ as much
as might be, from the eye of every stranger, but
more particularly from every Spaniard ; prohibited
all intercourse between them and their subjects ;
prevented even the introduction of the Spanish
Janguage among them, and were careful in keep-
THE JESUITS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 137
ing up the Guareni, which was the language of the
natives. They likewise exercised the people from
early youth in the use of arms, and kept all the
approaches of the country well fortified and in a
constant posture of defence ; observing in the
government of their colony a perfection of policy
such as few monarchs have ever been able to
effect. Nor must it be forgotten, that other
and less equivocal praise is justly due, for having
introduced and maintained the utmost purity of
morals among their subjects, and thus laying
the surest and most durable foundation of social
prosperity and happiness, when built, as in this
case, on the firm basis of religious doctrine ; for
by the sublime influence of Christianity, they
succeeded in making concord, chastity, and tem-
perance the ruling virtues of these people.
The Jesuit communities remained for a long
course of years, a secluded and unknown world,
strictly guarded and vigorously defended from
outward assault : proving one of the most lucra-
tive and seemingly exhaustless of mines ; whence
the order drew those mighty sums which it re-
quired in Europe, for the bribery, sometimes of
a minister, sometimes of a mistress ; for keeping
in pay emissaries, by whom the conversion of
138 THE JESUITS IN SPAIN* AND PORTUGAL.
influential men might be at least attempted ; for
the support of spies ; for the purchasing of in-
telligence, or for the relief of distressed members,
as well as for the maintenance of that external
pomp and splendour by which the common herd
of mankind is so easily dazzled and betrayed.
Besides their Paraguay territories, the Jesuits
possessed extensive power in the Portuguese pro-
vinces of Brazil and Maragnan.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
The fame of the extended commerce and immense
riches of the Jesuits, excited against them the jea-
lousyof the eighteenth century ; and their unbound-
ed power, though still more the purposes to which
it was applied, elicited a disgust which broke forth
with a violence, the unbridled fury of which was
in proportion to the long sufferance which had
preceded it. Long oppressed individual liberty,
insulted human nature, the majesty of kings,
and social progress long repressed, if not de-
tained in actual bondage, by a proud fraternity,
called loudly for redress, which was well awarded
by the eighteenth century, although the sentence
was promulgated in storm and tumult.^ Men of
the most discriminating minds, of all nations, but
140 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
particularly in France and Germany, had for some
time lent their aid to undermine, through the
medium of the press, the supporting pillars of
intolerance : philosophy helped forward the work
w T ith the sharp weapons of doubt ; ridicule and
wit contributed to open the eyes of every class ;
and hence, with the resistless force of a long-hem-
med torrent, reawakened reason burst its bonds,
sweeping away the works of ages in its course ;
and yet policy, even more than reason, contributed
to give the death-blow to despotism ; for the first
thunderbolt which the proud Jesuit fraternity
was doomed to feel was launched by the hand of
Rome. The pope could no longer be kept in the
dark respecting the true position of the order,
with respect to the papacy ; and, convinced they
were no longer its protectors but its masters,
Benedict IV, resolved on reducing their power
within the ancient limits they had so audaciously
overstepped ; but the work was one of great dif-
ficulty, and demanded as much prudence as ener-
gy. Benedict's first step was the issuing of a
bull in 1741, which, though chiefly aimed at the
Jesuits, prohibited all ecclesiastics, without excep-
tion, from the exercise of commerce, on any pre-
tence ; debarring them from either inheriting, or
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 141
accepting as a donative, any branch of trade set
on foot by laymen, and even from trafficking with
the natural products of their domains, either in
their own name or in that of secular agents em-
ployed on their behalf. By another bull published
in the same year, the Jesuits were expressly pro-
hibited from making slaves of the Indians, or
using them as such. King John V. and the bis-
hops of Portugal were desired to watch over the
strict observance of these injunctions, which, how-
ever, were violently and successfully resisted by
the order, until the death of that bigoted mon-
arch in 1750. On the accession of his son
Joseph Emanuel, Joseph cle Carvalho, Marquess
de Pombal, a man of distinguished talent and
great decision of character, was placed at the head
of public affairs ; and considering the deplorable
state of the country as being a consequence of
Jesuit ascendancy, he became convinced that slow
and gradual measures of improvement would avail
little ; and that nothing short of their total dis-
lodgment, and a total reorganisation of the sys-
tem of government, could effectually promote the
prosperity of the nation. The adoption of very
violent measures was the result of this conviction,
which could scarcely fail to produce many
142 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
instances of individual injustice, as well as to draw
upon him the hatred of the attacked order, whose
influence at court was still far from inconsidera-
ble, and which they naturally exerted to the ut-
most in defence of their threatened existence.
Public seminaries and tuition generally were the
first subjects of PombaPs reforms, which he sought
to effect by appointing foreign professors to the
university of Coimbra, by the erection of new
schools, and by withdrawing the censorship from
the hands of the clergy, while the Jesuits watched
every movement with a silent but a deadly hate.
It was not long before a favorable opportunity for
coming to an open breach with them, was afforded
by the termination of the long pending disputes
between Spain and Portugal, respecting the claims
of each to the South American colony of San Sa-
gramendo, by means of a treaty of peace, by virtue
of which, Portugal relinquished the colony to
Spain, receiving as an equivalent, that portion of
Paraguay which was under the rule of the Jesuits,
who not only positively refused to cede their ter-
ritory to the crown, but made active preparations
for its fortification, and called on their people to
arm in its defence. A war ensued, in which the
natives made powerful head against the united
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 143
forces of Spain and Portugal, until at length the
treaty of exchange was nullified in 1761. These
events set Ponibal at full liberty to avow and
openly carry on his bold plans against the Jesuits,
who on their part exerted the full strength of their
influence to compass his fall. But Ponibal suc-
ceeded in obtaining from the king an order for
the Jesuits to withdraw from the palace, and lay
down all their offices, whether as confessors or
teachers of youth : the pope being at the same
time called upon to purify the order from the abuses
which had crept into it, and to reduce its power
within its ancient limits. Benedict XIV. sent
Cardinal Saldanho, armed with plenary authority,
to Portugal, who examined into the affairs of the
fraternity, and prohibited commerce to its mem-
bers, while the Portuguese patriarch strictly inter-
dicted them from preaching or hearing confession
within his jurisdiction. During the progress of
these events, an attempt was made on the life of
the king one evening, as he was taking the air in
his carriage ; and Pombal, strongly suspecting the
Jesuits of being implicated in the crime, summoned
an extraordinary court of justice on the occasion,
by whom, in 1759, many of the nobility were found
guilty of making the attempt, and the Jesuits of
144 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
instigating it. This completed their discomfiture.
The guilty nobles were executed : numerous Je-
suits, among others the fathers Malagrida, Souza,
and Mathos, were imprisoned, until the new Pope,
Clement XIII. should decide their fate, and on the
3rd Sept. 1759, the whole order was suppressed
within the bounds of Portugal, its estates were con-
fiscated, and all its members, with the exception
of those detained in prison, were shipped off for
Italy. Clement XIII. indeed, a great favourer of
the Jesuits, and much influenced by their general,
Lorenzo Ricci, took zealous part with the accused,
but without effect ; the court of Portugal became
at variance with the pope on the subject, and
father Malagrida, an old man of 74, and a crack-
brained enthusiast, but assuredly no traitor, was
delivered over to the court of the Inquisition, who
condemned him as a heretic to the flames. The
sentence was carried into effect in 1761. Of the
other Jesuit prisoners, some died in confinement,
some were sent to Italy, and others set at liberty
after the death of the king ; involving no doubt
many innocent individuals in the deserved fate of
the order, but who unavoidably suffered for the
sins of either predecessors or contemporaries.
The example thus set by Portugal was soon
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 145
followed by France, where the Jansenist dispute >
first kindled, and afterwards so diligently fanned
by the Jesuits themselves, threatened to become the
cause of their ruin; for the Parliament, which
was strongly tinctured with Jansenism, was
resolved no longer to suffer the Jesuits (in con-
formity with their principles) to constitute in
fact a state within the state ; and as they had
for some time been gradually lessening in public
estimation by the uninterrupted attacks of able
writers, a small increase of offence was sufficient
to ensure their fall. This occasion was speedily
furnished by the occurrence of a lawsuit, institu-
ted against the order under the following circum-
stances. A Jesuit father, named Lavalette, hav-
ing, as superior of a mission in the Island of
Martinique, (one of the French West-India pos-
sessions,) erected extensive magazines and fac-
tories, had amassed huge sums for the brother-
hood, by commercial speculations, not only in
colonial produce, but in negro slaves. His
European agency was conducted by a mercantile
house of Marseilles, upon which he had, at the
period of which we speak, drawn bills to a very
large amount (a million and a half liyres,) and
these were honoured by the house, on the security
L
146 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
of the promised arrival of two ships with cargoes
valued at two millions, but which, the French
being then at war with England, were unfortu-
nately captured by English cruizers. The Mar-
seilles house was, by this blow, brought to the
verge of bankruptcy, and demanded indemnifi-
cation from the Jesuit body, which however, they
roundly refused, declaring it could not be by
any means considered a debt of the order, as,
if father Lavalette had engaged in traffic, he
had criminally transgressed the society's rules,
which had therefore nothing to do with the
father's debt. The matter being brought before
a court of justice, it demanded the production
of the Jesuit statutes, and then pronounced the
defence untenable, and the society of Jesus
justly liable for the amount ; because, by their
own rules, no Jesuit dare possess any private pro-
perty, and the property of each was declared to
be the property of all. But this examination
enabled the Parliament of Paris at once to see,
and to prove, how highly dangerous the very con-
stitution of the order rendered it to the state,
and it consequently denounced in 1761, all the
privileges bestowed on it by various popes as
abuses ; caused a number of Jesuitical writings
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 147
(printed under the sanction of their superiors,)
which justified rebellion, regicide, and other high
crimes, to be burned by the common hangman,
and published besides, for the benefit of the world
at large, an extract of the disgraceful sentiments
promulgated in various Jesuit works.
These energetic proceedings of the parliament
were supported by the prime minister, the Due
de Choiseul; but Louis XV, reduced nearly to
imbecility by the most shameful debaucheries,
was satisfied with receiving an assurance that
the evils of the order should be corrected ; a
proposal was even made that a Frenchman
should be appointed as Vicar-General over all
the Jesuits in France. When the proposition
was submitted to Lorenzo Ricci, he replied, ' I
can by no means consent to such an invasion of
our fundamental laws, and the Jesuits must either
remain as they are, or cease to exist.' And he
spoke the truth, not only for that, but for all
times : would that every government would but
believe the words with which the iron-minded
general spoke at that time, the sentence of his
order ! for they produced, on the 6th of August,
1762, a decision of the parliament of Paris, that,
' the society of Jesus is dissolved, as dangerous to
T. 2
148 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
the state/ But it was still permitted to its mem-
bers to retain parishes and vicarages, on condition
of their renouncing all connection with the
order ; and on their failing to comply with this
limitation, the parliament issued, in 1764, an
order for their leaving France within four weeks.
But again the king interfered, and although he
confirmed the dissolution of the order, permitted
its former members to remain in France, on con-
dition of their conforming their conduct to the
laws of the realm. Clement XIII. made many
fruitless efforts to rescue and uphold the
order, and even issued a Bull reversing the
decree for its suppression in France ; but both
the French parliament and the republic of Venice
prohibited the admission or proclamation of this
Bull in their territories, and no human power
now sufficed to prevent the overthrow of a mons-
trous institution, whose own delinquencies had
drawn down the vengeance of insulted humanity
upon its head.
Of this, Spain gave soon after a very striking
proof, although at the time of their expulsion
from Portugal, the Jesuits appeared immoveably
rooted, not only in the favour of Ferdinand VI.
and his successor Charles III., but in the de-
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 149
votion of both nobles and people. But an in-
surrection occurring in Madrid in 1766, it was
brought to the knowledge of the king, that the
Jesuits had stirred up the populace, representing
him as a bastard, and as such to have forfeited
the crown. On which, his prime minister, Count
de Aranda, urged him to follow the examples of
France and Portugal, and expel the Jesuits from
every part of his dominions, as dangerous to the
state. The sovereign consented : the intended
blow was kept a profound secret, till, on the night
between the 2nd and 3rd of April, 1767, every
building belonging to the proscribed body was
surrounded by soldiers, the whole brotherhood,
amounting in Spain alone to 7000, taken pri-
soners, and conveyed to seaports, whence they
were shipped off for Italy ; a similar measure was
afterwards carried into effect in Spanish America,
their estates being confiscated ; every native Je-
suit was allowed a yearly pension, but return
to Spain was interdicted under heavy penalties,
and neither power nor influence served to
rescue them from the fate which had overtaken
them, and which God himself had pronounced
against them. The banished Jesuits were forced
to remain a considerable time on board ship ; for
150 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
the pope at first refused to admit them into his
dominions, and thus the unfortunates were long
without finding rest for the soles of their feet.
They were landed at length upon the island of
Corsica, and at an after period, removed into the
states of the church. Rome could not contain
the fugitives, especially when, in November of
the same year, (1767,) they were in like manner
driven from the kingdom of Naples, and con-
veyed to the patrimony of St. Peter ; and in
1768, a like fate overtook them in Malta and
Parma. But the severest blow was yet to come ;
their hitherto firm friend and protector, Clement
XIII. appointed a secret conclave for the purpose
of yielding to the unanimous demands of all
the Catholic courts for the suppression of the
order ! but he died suddenly the very evening
preceding the 3rd of February, on which he had
agreed to hold the conclave ! Through the in-
fluence of the same courts, who desired the entire
destruction of the fraternity, Cardinal Ganganelli
was elected to the papal dignity, which he as-
sumed by the title of Clement XIV. and strove
for several years, with a really honest zeal, to effect
their radical reform, and thus prevent their total
ruin. But all proved fruitless ; Clement, unable
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 151
to arrest a judgment demanded by the spirit of
the times, issued on the 21st of July, 1773, a
Bull, (commencing with the words, Dominus ac
redemptor noster,) by which he " dissolved and
for ever annihilated the order as a corporate
body," at a moment when it counted 22,000
members ! This bull declares among other
things that, " as various means and regulations
for the reform of the order, had entirely failed
in removing the numerous complaints made
against them, and the various insurrections and
rebellions charged upon them ; as all the efforts
of his predecessors, Urban VIII, Clements IX,
X, XI, and XII., Alexanders VII, and VIII,
Innocents X, XI, XII, and XIII, and Benedict
XIV, to reestablish the so-much-desired peace
of the church, had proved fruitless, notwith-
standing their many salutary decrees, as well for
the suppression of worldly commerce undertaken
by the society, (and that not on account of mis-
sions only, but as mere trading speculations,) as
for preventing the different combinations and
disputes against bishops, the regular monastic
orders, pious foundations, and corporations of
every sort, not only in Europe but in Asia and
America, to the grievous danger of souls and the
152 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
astonishment of all nations : even extending their
intermeddling to the interpolation and intro-
duction in some places of heathen customs and
manners, and the setting aside of those appointed
and received by the church, taking upon them-
selves to hold and inculcate opinions which the
apostolic chair had pronounced fundamentally
erroneous and evidently subversive of good
morals; and as, lastly, they have greatly failed in
other things of not less importance, and specially
in such as conduce to the maintenance of pure
Christian doctrine, by all which, in the present
no less than in past times, very many injuries
and difficulties have been occasioned, and dis-
turbances and tumults originated in Catholic
countries, giving rise to persecutions of the
church in many provinces both of Europe and
Asia. Seeing therefore," proceeds the bull,
" that the said society of Jesus is now as little
capable of producing the wholesome and satis-
factory fruits, as the great advantages for which it
was invested with so many privileges, and that,
should it remain in being, it would be very
difficulty if not wholly impossible, to establish
and maintain a true and lasting peace in the
church, we dissolve and suppress the said so-
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 153
ciety, dispossessing it of every office, service,
and administration. We take away from them
their houses, schools, hospitals, estates, in
whatever place, province, or kingdom they may
be situated; we withdraw all their statutes,
usages, decrees, customs, and ordinances, whe-
ther attained by administration of oaths by apos-
tolic sanction, or by any other means whatever ;
and we consequently pronounce all the power of
the general, provincials, visitors, and every other
head of the same order, whether spiritual or se-
cular, to be for ever annulled and suppressed.
Their jurisdiction we transfer to the bishops in
ordinary of the several districts, and hereby
prohibit any one to be either received into the
noviciate, or promoted to higher offices in the
said order. We command that such as have
already entered the order as novices shall not be
permitted to take either simple or solemn vows
therein, under penalty of the nullity of the vow,
and with reservation of farther punishment, &c.
Furthermore," runs the conclusion, " we exhort
all Christian princes to procure for this edict the
fullest operation, by virtue of all that power and
authority with which God hath entrusted them ;
and we exhort all Christian people to remember
154 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
that reciprocal love is their highest duty, and
that they ought to hate contention and disputes,
complaints and ill will, and every thing invented
by the arch-enemy of the human race, for the
disturbance of the church and the hindrance
of the eternal happiness of the faithful, under
the false pretence of the authority of the schools,
or even of Christian perfection. And this our
letter shall ?iot, under any form or pretext,
either of law or privilege, be sat in judgment
upon, or attacked, nor its power be weakened
or withdrawn, but the present ordinance shall
remain in full force and operation from hence-
forth and for ever." The bull was made known
to the Jesuits in Rome on the 16th of August ;
and their general, Ricci, together with many of
the brotherhood, conveyed as prisoners to the
castle of St. Angelo, where Ricci died on the
24th of November, 1775, as unbending in his
maintenance of the high claims of his order, as
he had ever been during life in enforcing and
acting upon them. Clement XIV left this world
somewhat more than a year before him, all the
world believed in consequence of poison, the
result of Jesuit revenge ; he himself anticipated
nothing else, and remarked, while affixing his
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 155
signature to the bull of suppression, " I am now-
signing my death-warrant." Two memorials
from the pens of Jesuits, represent Clement as
a " blasphemer," a " heretic/' a " surreptitious,
simoniacally-appointed head of the Church,"
and the edict of suppression as a " direct infringe-
ment of the gospel, a formal heresy, and an un-
natural crime."
Thus was the Jesuit order, 233 years after it
had been solemnly established by one pope, (Paul
III.) in his pretended character of " Infallible
Vicegerent of Jesus Christ," now, by another
infallible, God-inspired Vicegerent, as solemnly
dissolved ! How shall we reconcile these two in-
fallibilities ? The question is a puzzling one ;
and, however it may be solved, one thing is cer-
tain, that by virtue of that bull the Jesuit order
was deprived of all legal existence ; it was there-
fore suppressed in all Catholic countries, not
excepting the Austrian dominions and Bavaria,
where it deemed itself invincible. Long indeed
had the deeply-felt piety of the noble Maria
Theresa resisted all the weighty political argu-
ments of her faithful and able minister Kannaty,
answering his earnest representations only with
her tears ; nor was her consent obtained to the
156 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
important measure, until her just indignation was
roused, by having the very words she had spoken,
under the seal of confessional secresy, respecting
the partition of Poland, repeated to her by her
ambassador at the Roman court, Count Willezek,
as having been betrayed by her Jesuit confessor
to his general. Such, at least, is the account fur-
nished by one credible authority ; although
another states, that the Pope's personal represen-
tations to the empress of the guilt she incurred,
by so pertinaciously resisting the decisions of the
divinely-appointed supreme church authority,
alone prevailed on her, as an obedient daughter,
to fulfil what had been decreed by infallible
wisdom. Whichever may have been the prevailing
motive, or whether both may not have combined
to impel the empress to consent, she did do so,
and the order was formally suppressed in Vienna
on the 14th of September, 1770.
The sentiments entertained towards the brother-
hood by the enlightened son of Maria Theresa,
Joseph II., maybe gathered from the two follow-
ing letters. In the first, addressed to Choiseul, the
Emperor expresses himself thus. ' I know these
men as well as any one can do ; all the schemes
they have carried on, and the pains they have
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 157
taken to spread darkness over the earth, as well
as their efforts to rule and to embroil Europe,
from Cape Finisterre to Spitzbergen ! In Ger-
many they were mandarins, in France academi-
cians, courtiers, and confessors, in Spain and Por-
tugal grandees, and in Paraguay they were kings.
Had not my grand-uncle Joseph I. become Em-
peror, we had in all probability seen in Germany
too, a Malagrida or an Avieros ; and attempts at
regicide had probably not been wanting. But
he knew them thoroughly, and on one occasion
shewed them he did so.
' The Jesuit Sanhedrim, suspecting his confessor,
though one of their order, of greater attachment
and fidelity to his master than to the Vatican,
thought fit to summon him to Rome. The poor
man foresaw the horrible fate which awaited him,
and besought the Emperor to prevent his journey
thither. But every attempt remained fruitless,
and even the nuncio demanded, in the name of his
master, the confessor's appearance at the papal
court ; upon which the monarch, indignant at their
despotism, declared that if the priest must needs
go to Rome, it should not be without a numerous
retinue, for that every Jesuit in the Austrian
dominions should accompany him across the
158 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
frontier, and that never to return. This deter-
mined reply, evincing a spirit, as unexampled in
those times as it was unlooked-for, produced a
sudden change in the Jesuit councils, and they
yielded the disputed point/
The letter to Aranda, written in 1773, shortly
after the suppression of the order, contains the
following remarkable passage. ' Before Jesuits
were known in Germany, religion was a source
and a doctrine of happiness to the people ; but
they have converted it into a disgraceful round of
observances, made it the ladder of their ambition,
and the cloak of their designs. Were I capable
of feeling hatred towards any one, I certainly
should hate a race of men who persecuted Fenelon,
and procured the bull ' In coena Domini/ which
has brought Rome into such contempt/
Frederick the Great, of Prussia, alone refused to
give effect to the bull of suppression in the catho-
lic portion of his dominions, not choosing, as a
protestant, to acknowledge the authority of the
pope as supreme head of the Church ; in addition
to which, Frederick did not wish to exclude the
Jesuits from that toleration which he had guaran-
teed by his royal word to all classes of his sub-
jects. But that wise monarch was speedily con-
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 159
vinced how little the Jesuit body deserved the
favour or even the toleration of the laws, while
they themselves continued to contemn the rights
of states, nations, kings, and even of humanity
itself; and in 1776, Frederick found himself com-
pelled to prohibit the Jesuits wearing the dress of
their order. Thenceforward they assumed the
name of priests of the Royal School-Society ; this
likewise was afterwards abrogated by Frederick
William II. who transferred their domains to the
universities of Halle and Frankfort on the Oder.
But at the very period in which the urgent in-
terference of the Roman see had procured the
suppression of the order throughout catholic
Europe, it obtained a footing in Russia ; that em-
pire, upon which its most persevering attempts
had been so long made in vain ; and where the
dominant Greek Church had ever evinced the most
determined opposition to any approximation to a
union with the Roman. The then sovereign of
Russia, Catherine II., had, at the partition of Po-
land, pledged herself to maintain the existing Ro-
man Catholic faith in that portion of the country
which fell to her share, and therefore, when
Clement XIV. abolished the ordei\ of Jesuits,
which was verv numerous in Poland, Catherine
160 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
declined, as autocrat, to ratify the Papal decree.
Count Czernitschew, likewise, zealously supported
their cause, and the bishop of Mallow, in White
Russia, permitted them in 1779, again to admit
novices. In 1782, the Empress empowered them
to choose a Vicar-general, adding thereto the ex-
press and most gracious declaration, ( that the
order might be kept up without either molestation
or limitation/ And thus the great stem which had
been cut down almost to the roots, was enabled to
send forth one healthy shoot, which, striking its
roots from day to day, unheeded, deeper into the
soil of Russia, soon raised once more a stately
head, adorned with new and vigorous branches.
Even in 1786, the Society could boast 178 mem-
bers.
Meanwhile, though debarred in the other coun-
tries of Europe from using their ancient name
and dress, and forced to mine their mole-like way
in the guise of teachers, professors, or the various
grades of private life, the Jesuit spirit had in no
case been laid aside. AVell remembering their
former dominion, intimately persuaded that the
great majority of their brethren still pertinaciously
clung to the idea of their late so formidable body
politic, the remembrance and the conviction suffi-
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 161
ced to create at once, a hope and a longing for its
re-establishment, and incited to the secret but cease-
less employment of all their arts to realize it ;
causing them to labour, too, with increased animo-
sity, to undermine every state which they regarded
as their oppressor. Their undistinguishing dress,
their removal from all open profession of their
principles, though laid upon them as a hindrance,
actually facilitated their designs, and they gradually
attained to influential employments under govern-
ment, as well as in the church and seminaries for
education. Nowhere probably were the fruits of
their labour so evident as in the Austrian (formerly
Spanish) portion of the Belgian provinces j produ-
cing a general resistance to the energetic innova-
tions of Joseph II., which ended in a declaration
by the estates in 1790, of separation from Austria,
and the erection of Belgium into an independent
state. On this occasion the Jesuits professed great
zeal for the threatened rights and immunities of
the people, and sought to calumniate the immortal
Joseph II. as an enemy of religion, although no-
thing short of a deep-felt reverence for its precepts,
joined to a true sense of moral obligation and re-
sponsibility, could have rendered him jso bold and
untiring in his endeavours to fulfil his stern duties
M
162 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
as chief magistrate, by suppressing those countless
abuses, and stupifying no less than demoralizing su-
perstitions, with which a selfish priesthood had for
centuries obscured the pure essence of Christianity,
until scarcely recognizable ; degrading at the same
time the high and holy dignities attached to the
priestly office.
The removal of such abuses not only irritated
the priests with irreconcileable hatred against the
royal innovator, but furnished them with welcome
pretexts for instigating the populace against him ;
and their vile efforts have partly succeeded, in
making the pure intentions of this friend of the
human race, appear doubtful in the eyes of cotem-
poraries, and odious to succeeding generations ;
although his name deserves to stand inscribed
with ineffaceable characters amid those noble
spirits, who lived, laboured and suffered, for the
benefit of mankind.
A similar game was played by the uncowled
Jesuits of Bavaria, where they had from time im-
memorial, held the honest straight-forward pithy
natives, in the lowest state of spiritual subjection ;
opposing every advancing step in the path of
knowledge. Thev now attacked the new school
system, the recently established Academy of sci-
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 163
ences, and in short every new institution, whose
object was the ennobling of the national character,
with the most violent animosity, seeking at the
sametime, by every possible means, the re-establish-
ment of their order. A singular coincidence facili-
tated their attempt. There has existed almost
from the earliest times, a noble and estimable
brotherhood of blameless men, who in quiet seclu-
sion planned the realization of a return to the
original dignity of man, and strove with true
brotherly love, in the reciprocal and united exer-
tion of their every power, and often with many
personal sacrifices, to further in every way the in-
terests of humanity. This brotherhood, formed
by men of the noblest principles and for the no-
blest ends, and which still exists, still labours, is
called the fraternity of Freemasons : of which
every member, be he prince or peasant, priest or
layman, learned or unlearned, the possessor of
millions, or the heir of poverty, knows, in regard of
another, no distinction of rank; they look upon
each other only as men, and therefore, equally
free from recognising distinctions of religious creed,
but propounding love to God as the first of duties,
they respect the peculiar tenets of each individual,
and the laws of every state ; and, far from seeking
m 2
164 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
to undermine or subvert any government, Freema-
sons are content to recognise in their own frater-
nity, a distinct, pure, and enduring institution, for
the furtherance of civilization, the mitigation of
poverty, and the upholding and confirmation of
good faith, and thus to further the permanent and
intimate amalgamation of religious freedom and
civil order in society.
The order of Freemasons has been spread
almost as extensively as that of the Jesuits ; but
its object and aim, the love of humanity and the
benefit of humankind — were as opposed in their
nature to the unmixed egotism of Jesuitism, as
light is to darkness ; which sufficiently accounts
for the hatred and persecution felt and exercised
by the Jesuits towards the Freemasons, from
their first rise to the present hour. These were
strikingly exhibited (at the period of which we
now treat,) in Bavaria, under the government of
the elector Charles Theodore, when there hap-
pened to arise a new sect, calling themselves Illu-
niinati, which the Jesuits assiduously strove
to confound and identify with Freemasonry.
Adam Weishaupt, professor in the university of
Ingolstadt. founded the society of Illuminati, in
the year 1776, originally indeed for the purpose of
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 165
combatting the enemies of intellectual advance-
ment ; but by modelling it, like that of the Jesuits,
upon the principle of a slavish gradation of the
members, and an unalloyed despotism of the rul-
ing authorities, he implanted, even from its first
commencement, the sure seeds of destruction and
decay. The association was strictly occult, and
consisted of several grades of initiated, each
grade being, as in the society of Jesus, pledged to
blind submission towards the next above it in
rank : each could indeed indulge the hope of
being able, by a display of superior intelligence
and capabilities, to soar upward to a higher
sphere of action ; whilst the highest ruling powers
in the order, whose names remained a profound
secret from all the world beyond the pale of the
initiated, could exact and enforce passive obedi-
ence from every class and member of their com-
munity. Thus constituted, the Illuminati were,
in some measure, a revivification of the Jesuits,
although under the perverted use of the Freema-
son formula ; and very soon the internal curse
under which it laboured, was evidenced bv
indubitable proof that the unseen leaders sought
not the welfare of mankind, like their maligned
prototype, but solely the temporal interests of
166 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
themselves and their creatures. The danger to
all good government, consequent on this degene-
racy of the Ilium inati order, which had spread
over a great part of Germany, and at its zenith,
numbered 2,000 members, becoming apparent,
it was suppressed in Bavaria in 1785. The
disguised Jesuits hailed its fall, as a welcome
occasion for recommending their own importance
to the elector Charles Theodore ; suggesting that
they alone were able to ward off the blows aimed
by ruinous cabals at church and state, and at
the same time they insinuated grave causes of
suspicion against the progress of knowledge
generally, and specially against its firm friends the
Freemasons. This alarming and unexpected re-
turn of Jesuitical influence became daily more
boldly and openly manifested throughout Germa-
ny ; the secret Jesuits and their equally concealed
but firmly attached adherents and emissaries,
printed and circulated writings, in which the fair
expressions illumination and humanity were made
to appear synonymous with denial of God, and
aversion to Christianity; while every noble spirit
which entered the lists in favour of the progress
of mind and against the revival of the kingdom
of darkness, was branded as a reprobate. The
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 167
great increase of the Romish party generally, but
above all in Bavaria, was unhappily evidenced at
this time by the success with which the govern-
ment repressed a movement originating with the
four German archbishops of Cologne, Treves, May -
ence, and Saltzburg, the object of which was to
free the German Catholic Church from the
shackles of the Roman hierarchy. The circum-
stance which more immediately called forth this
episcopal demonstration, was the pertinacity with
which the pope persisted, in despite of the most
urgent representations, in sending a nuncio to the
court of the palatinate, not merely in the character
of ambassador, but as a papal delegate, furnished
with full powers of spiritual jurisdiction. The
archbishops of Mayence and Saltzburg appealed
to Joseph II., as the proper defender and protec-
tor of the German Church, and claimed his aid
as head of the empire, against those novel and
violent encroachments on the part of the Roman
college. Joseph promised his protection, and
informed the archbishops, that he had already
announced to the court of Rome (through the
medium of his ambassador,) that he, as emperor,
could no longer permit any individual nuncio to
exercise spiritual jurisdiction within the German
168 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
empire, nor suffer that the imperial archbishops
and bishops should thus be disturbed in those
rights with which God and his Church had in-
vested them : but that he was, on the contrary,
resolved to use every effort to procure for them the
restoration of those original rights of which they
had been dispossessed : he now therefore called on
the four archbishops, in conjunction with all their
suffragans and other bishops throughout Germany,
to maintain their archiepiscopal and episcopal
rights against all attacks, and stedfastly to up-
hold the same, ' all encroachments and interfe-
rence of the papal court or its nuncios against
law and order notwithstanding/ Upon this the
four archbishops concluded, by means of their
plenipotentiaries, an agreement at Ems, the 25th
August, 1786, called ' the Ems punctation/ con-
sisting of 23 articles, in which, resting on the
unalienability of their rights, and the validity of
the decrees of the council of Basle in 1439,
(which are still unrevoked, notwithstanding the
Aschaffenburg concordat,) and referring to the
repeated solemn promise of calling a general
council of the Church, they declared all inter-
meddling of the Roman college in the ecclesiastical
affairs of Germany to be an abuse : pronounced
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 169
the jurisdiction of the papal nuncio as it regarded
them, null and void; that the oath of vassalage
taken by the German bishops should be modified ;
that the first-fruits and pall-monies which flowed
to Rome should be at least moderated ; foreigners
excluded from the enjoyment of German benefices ;
all exemptions of the monasteries, and all con-
nection between religious fraternities and their
foreign superiors cancelled, and every matrimo-
nial difficulty, which came within the common
rule of dispensation cases, wholly abrogated.
Further, that a third court of appeal in the
character of a provincial synod should be created ;
the mischievous AschafTenburg concordat sub-
mitted to a strict revision ; and lastly, that a
universal, or at least a German national council,
should be summoned.
It was not long before the most violent oppo-
sition arose on the part of the college of Cardi-
nals ; and Pacca, the Papal nuncio at Cologne,
declared the first dispensation which the Arch-
bishops attempted to exercise to be without
validity. The emperor indeed annulled the
nuncio's circular on the subject, and the four
Archbishops directed their parochial clergy not to
receive it ; but the Elector of Bavaria, in his
170 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
capacity of Count Palatine, forbade the clergy
of the diocese of Worms, which was subject to
Mayence, to yield obedience to the Archbishops,
under the penalty of being mulcted of their re-
venues, and likewise threatened the Archbishops
that he would entirely withdraw his territories
from their Archiepiscopal jurisdiction. Thus
the Bavarian Palatinate, under an apprehension
of suffering some diminution of sovereign power
which would pass into the hands of the Arch-
bishops, preferred to make common cause with
the Papal see, and actually succeeded in frus-
trating the object of the Ems punctation,
which was calculated to lead to still greater re-
sults; from which mortifying fact, one lesson,
and one well deserving of attention, may be
learned ; that the Archbishops missed their aim,
by not calling on the whole body of the German
clergy to take part with them from the first in
the struggle, as well as by not adopting the
decisive principle of entire separation from the
supremacy of the Roman hierarchy. We have
been chiefly induced to cast this retrospective
glance at the Ems punctation, by a deep
feeling of the necessity of urging the importance
of renewing the then begun work in the present
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 171
day with more circumspection, as well as energy,
and, by founding a free German Catholic
churchy in union with national councils, of
finally eradicating the supremacy of Rome, and
the plague-spot of Jesuitism from the soil of
Germany.
When the French revolution burst forth and
spread like a stream of lava over Europe ; when
every prince trembled on his throne, before the
mighty new-awakened energy of popular ideas,
urging on a long oppressed people to challenge
with bloodstained hands the unalienable but long
denied rights, which would not be willingly con-
ceded to them, the masked Jesuits fancied they
had discovered a happy opportunity for com-
mending their order to the use of princes, as a
species of lightning-rod by which to lead off the
thunderbolts of heaven from their dominions.
" Behold," cried they, " the consequence of ba-
nishing us from France ! but for that unwise
measure, the free-thinkers had never been able
to obtain that overweening influence with the
people by the circulation of their impious wri-
tings." But this bold assertion was unsupported
by a tittle of historical evidence; for, the true
sources of the French revolution were, the op-
172 THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER.
pression inflicted by the court upon the nation
for upwards of two centuries, in which the
Jesuits had fully borne their part, and that
abandoned licentiousness to which their abomi-
nable code of morals so largely contributed, and
for which that fearful blood-letting seemed the
only cure. We may also remark, that those
writers, who, by pouring light into the mind of
the nation, undeniably paved the way for the
revolution, were chiefly excited and stimulated
to mental resistance by the persecutions with
which every scintillation of free inquiry was
quenched by the Jesuits, so that in this too they
were the fosterers rather than the preventers of
the fearful tragedy.
And yet the false axiom, and impudent as
false, promulgated by the fraternity and their
friends, ( that no state could be safe unless
placed under their guardianship/ has in *some
degree maintained its ground even to the present
day. The silly credit it, because their weak eyes
cannot recognize the sublime realities of religion,
without which no family and much more no state
can long exist, except under the guise of the
Romish Church, and fully identified with its
priest-rule. Yet to every one in his sound senses
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER. 173
it must be clear as day, that a spiritual power as-
suming supremacy over all earthly power whatso-
ever, cannot but disturb the harmony of any
temporal government in the midst of which it
tries to set up its own. Not blind bondage, but
original right, is the historical foundation of all
government, and nothing but a voluntary com-
pact, in which each engages to support the rights
of his fellows, can create civil society ; and
since the majesty of the prince, rooted in the
rights of the nation, represents the abstract idea
of nationality, therefore it must soar far above
any arrogated supremacy of the bishops of
Home, whose universal sovereignty must neces-
sarily annihilate both the feeling and the name
of & fatherland.
CHAPTER IX.
REESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUIT ORDER,
AND ITS PRESENT RESULT.
Shortly after the Society of Jesus had found an
asylum in Russia, Pius VII. was prevailed on by
the entreaties of one of the brotherhood, named
Franciscus Karcu, backed by a letter of recom-
mendation from the Emperor Paul, to constitute
them a spiritual corporation for the Russian Em-
pire, which took place on the 7th of May, 1801,
by a brief, commencing with the word, 'Catholica;'
and three years subsequently the same measure
was extended to Naples and Sicily in another
brief, bearing date 13th July, 1804, and commen-
cing ' Per alias/ in which the Pope declares, ' It
hath seemed good and necessary to him to extend
the measure adopted in Russia to the kingdom of
THE REESTABLISHMENT. 175
both the Sicilies likewise, in answer to the prayer
of Ferdinand, his well-beloved son in Christ, who
had entreated the reestablishment in his states,
of the order in all its pristine plenitude/
In France too, where the Jesuits reappeared ir
1800, and renewed their accustomed exertions tc
gain adherents, they made various attempts, under
the government of Napoleon, to regain a formal
recognition of their society, but could not over-
come the distrust felt by the first consul, although
three years elapsed before his order for their sepa-
ration and relinquishment of their houses could
be carried into effect ; so that the power of this
spiritual community maintained itself for that
considerable period against the most determined
as well as the mightiest spirit of his age.
But when Napoleon abdicated the imperial
crown, and the nations of Europe were glorying
in the reattainment of their freedom, its first re-
sult was the reestablishment in Spain on the 21st
July, 1814, of the accursed blood-stained Inquisi-
tion, speedily followed (7th August, 1814,) by a
bull from Pius VII. (beginning with the words,
1 Solicitudo omnium,') in which he illustrates the
benefits of his recent restoration to the papal
chair, by reconstituting the Jesuit order for the
176 REESTABLISHMENT OF
whole of Christendom : and thus the precious
fruit of that long and bloody struggle in the name
of freedom, was the reestablishment of the ancient
bondage in all its unmitigated horrors ! The
following are some of the expressions contained in
the bull. ' The unanimous desire of nearly all
Christendom for the reconstitution of the society
of Jesus, occasioned daily applications from our
Reverend brethren the Archbishops and Bishops,
as well as from the most distinguished persons of
all classes, more especially since the manifestation
of the overflowing harvest of good fruits brought
forth in all districts where the brotherhood were
resident, and the fecundity of those offshoots
which afford hopeful promise of extending and
adorning the Lord's vineyard. We conceive
therefore that we should incur heavy guilt in the
sight of God, if amid the pressing necessities of
the common cause, we should hesitate to make
use of the wholesome aid which God himself by
his providence offers to our hand; if we, who
have entered the galley of St. Peter, while sur-
rounded by the howlings of the tempest, should
repel the vigorous and experienced rowers, who
proffer their services to stem the mighty rushing
THE JESUIT ORDER. 177
waves which seem ready every moment to engulph
it in destruction.'
And in the course of the bull, all princes, arch-
bishops, and bishops, are exhorted not to suffer
the society of Jesus to meet with any hindrance
or annoyance, but to see to it that they are re-
ceived with all love and kindness, concluding
with these threatening words : c And let whosoever
may presume to act contrary to the contents of
this bull know, that he will thereby draw down
upon himself, the wrath of God Almighty, and of
the holy Apostles Peter and Paul ! ' In those
sternly stirring times, when nations had been
called to contend for all they held most dear on
earth, for the rights of their prince, for the na-
tional independence, almost for the existence of
their country, the enthusiasm of patriotism became
merged in that of religion, which endured some
time after Napoleon's overthrow; and under the
influence of this excitement many weak minds
forgot the lessons of past experience, and looked
for benefit from an order which has ever combated
nationality, and must ever continue to do so, if it
would preserve its own existence ; nay, many even
dreamed to find in it a prop for the throne against
the levelling spirit of the times ! But those who
N
178 REESTABLTSHMENT OF
could cherish so vain and groundless an expecta-
tion, could not have reflected that ' the spirit of
the times ' can never be aught else than the ex-
pression of some heartfelt necessity, which as it
can only proceed from the innermost essence of
the nation, can never be resisted with any hope
of escaping being crushed under its weight ; they
could not have considered that confidence is the
surest support of the throne, that the people arc
ever gladly prompt to meet the prince in that
spirit ; and that those princes who honestly reci-
procate the feeling, may fearlessly bid defiance to
every earthly power which would seek their de-
struction.
The society of Jesus being now restored by a
third papal ' infallibility/ father Thaddeus Borzo-
zowsky, who had hitherto officiated as vicar-general
in Russia, was placed at its head, and houses of
the professed, noviciates, colleges, and seminaries
started up in every country of Europe. Proudly
triumphant, the brotherhood stalked abroad once
more in black cowls, and renewed their efforts with
a three-fold energy ; while the nations, wearied
and almost worn out with their late exertions,
slumbered in the listlessness of exhaustion ! The
houses belonging to the order at Rome were
THE JESUIT ORDER. 179
unable to contain the new members, and in 1817
there was again established there, — hear, andmark
it well, ye people of Germany! — a Collegium
Germanicum ! Once more have the Jesuits under-
taken the tuition of youth in every city of Italy.
They have opened seminaries in Genoa, Modena,
Parma, and Ferrara, into which they receive uncor-
rupted youth, and return them to the world filled
with Jesuitical principles. In Naples they possess
not only a college for the citizens at large, but
another for the reception of the nobles ; and ever
since 1823 they have raised their heads proudly
in Piedmont and Sardinia.
Ferdinand VII. of Spain, appointed their founder
Loyola, the invisible Captain General of the
Spanish forces, and grand cross of the order of
Charles III. Yet this invisible field-marshal
could not prevent his troops from being driven
out of Spain in 1820, or the order being sup-
pressed in 1835 ! Jesuit monasteries were erected
in Ireland in 1835, and Jesuit colleges exist in
England at Stoneyhurst and Hadden-house.
Fully relying on the hospitality already ex-
tended to them in Russia, they began attempts
at proselytising among the nobility* but this
attack upon the dominant Greek church was fatal
N 2
180 REESTABLISHMENT OF
to their cause, and as neither subterfuge nor
falsehood was listened to in extenuation, they
were forced to leave St. Petersburg and Moscow,
and still persevering in their secret attempts at
conversion, were finally and for ever banished
from Russia in 1820.
( Even while themselves enjoying a beneficent
toleration,' says the ukase of the 13th of
March, 1820, i they plant a stern intolerance in
the minds of their votaries ; strive by all means
to overturn that attachment to the faith of our
forefathers, which is the best safeguard of a
state, and try to undermine domestic happiness
by introducing difference of belief into the
bosoms of families ; while all their efforts are di-
rected to the promotion of their own interests
and the extension of their own power ; their sta-
tutes furnishing their consciences with a conve-
nient justification of every refractory and
unlawful action/
Banished from Russia, they fled to Austria,
and sought shelter from the emperor Francis I. ;
but the indignant monarch rejected their suit, and
commanded them to leave Vienna without delay.
Jesuits, however, were no Jesuits, could they be
turned from their purpose by one failure ; and so,
THE JESUIT ORDER. 181
in place of Jesuits, there arrived the order of Li-
gorians, or Redemptorists, in Vienna; obtained
permission to reside in Austria, occupying the
church of Mary the ascension, and to establish a
monastery in the capital ; and yet this congre-
gation, which replaced the Jesuits, resembled them
as closely as one egg does another !
The unwearied nature of the efforts which they
have made to obtain a permanent footing in the
Austrian dominions, is evidenced, not only by the
already stated fact of their possessing a house in
Vienna, but their getting the Theresium at In-
spruck into their hands, in 1833, as well as the
Gymnasium and church of the Jesuits, and by
their possessing houses in Venice and Lemberg.
All corporations belonging to their order in the
German and Venetian provinces of the Austrian
empire, enjoy, as well as those of Gallicia, by
virtue of the Imperial decrees of April 4th, and
October 11th. 1842, complete exemption from the
laws affecting mortifications ; under condition,
however, that every proposal for increasing
their property on the part of Jesuits, must first
obtain the imperial sanction, and every acqui-
sition of real property be without delay imme-
diately notified to the same high quarter.
182 REESTABLISHMENT OF
In France, during the reigns of Louis XVIII.
and Charles X., the Jesuits were active in the
vocation of missionaries, and under the appel-
lation of Peres de la foi (fathers of the faith,)
did much to restore the reign of superstition and
bigotry ; in short, to bring back the good old
times of civil and religious bondage, in which
they were supported not only by such bishops as
were of their party, but by some influential states-
men, who cherished the illusion that the Jesuits
are a prop to the throne. In vain did many ho-
nourable and able men bear decided and convin-
cing testimony to the untenability of the doc-
trine, and try to prove to their countrymen how
fraught with danger to the state the Jesuits have
ever proved. The voice of truth was either un-
heeded or despised, and the Jesuits continued to
exercise their influence on the election of bishops
undisturbed. Favoured by the government, they
got education almost wholly into their hands,
imposed on the court by a shew of sanctity, and
ruled it for their own advantage ; infatuated the
nobles so, that they sent their sons to the Swiss
Jesuit seminaries ; and at the same time dazzled
and fascinated the lowest class of the community.
But even in this melancholy state of things, the
THE JESUIT ORDER. 183
middle class, the pith and marrow of the nation,
remained sound, and unseduced by the arts to
which the rest of their countrymen had fallen a
prey ; and from their ranks, as from an invulne-
rable citadel, talented writers launched against
them the formidable artillery of the press, until
at length the lowering thunder-cloud burst on
the memorable July days of 1830, and the weak
and aged Charles X., with his Jesuit minister
Polignac, perceived too late, that the attempt to
stultify the people does not always insure the
inviolability of the prince. The Jesuits might
also have learned, that endeavours to prevent
the mental progress of a nation cannot escape
punishment ; for they now beheld it rise as an
angry giant and burst their well-rivetted fetters ;
they beheld the grey-haired king whom they had
led astray, forced to become a fugitive from the
fair land of his fathers ; they found themselves
compelled to flee in stormy haste, like proscribed
criminals, from the soil where they had lately
deemed themselves immoveably rooted, and still
could not escape being overtaken by the thousand-
voiced scorn of a long insulted people, to whom
the very name ' Jesuit ' furnished a reciprocated
term of contumely, to be bandied -about in the
184 REESTABLISHMENT OF
fierceness of party conflict. Such affecting les-
sons are not read to us from the page of history
without a purpose, and woe to those who overlook
or despise them ! But the Jesuits have ever set the
warnings of history at scornful defiance. AVhat
avails it that their order has been prohibited to
set foot in France ? Its members are at this
moment resident there, and although they have
neither public colleges, professed or novice
houses, nor even seminaries, under their own
avowed guidance, they do but work the more
effectively in secret, and the fruit of their labour
displays itself openly. They pursue their old
and well-tried plan of insinuating themselves
into every vein of the political body, drawing
it into subjection, by stupifying (despite political
institutions of every name and form in favour of
liberty) the general sense of the nation, by
bringing freedom of thought into suspicion, by
crushing freedom of conscience, and by fanning
the flames of religious animosity and religious
persecution. Only look at the last contest in
France against the universities, no less than
against the protestants, and try, if you can, to
shut your eyes to the palpably resuscitating heads
of the Hydra ! Listen to the anathemas re-
THE JESUIT ORDER. 185
sounding from French pulpits, against all who
presume to lay a hostile linger on one single link
of the great Jesuit chain, conclude from these
what are the whisperings poured from the con-
fessional into the ears of the bonded souls, (who
are far deeper sunk than bonded slaves,) and be
convinced, that, detested, despised, and depre-
cated as they are, the Jesuits are again in the
field, and rule, if not the king's court, at least the
peasant's hut !
Their operations in the united Netherlands,
(Holland and Belgium,) up to 1830, are well
known, in which a pretended danger threatening
the freedom of the Roman Catholic church was
made to cloak the intrigues of the Jesuits in state
affairs. Freedom indeed ! had they but sought
the attainment of genuine freedom of church
and conscience, how willingly would it have been
accorded to them ! But church dominion was
their real aim, and they slily availed them-
selves of the love of liberty, inherent in Belgians,
to work their own ends. And even after the
violent separation of Holland and Belgium, for
which their cabals in great measure paved the
way, their partisans among the Roman Catholics
continued to exert themselves for the maintenance
186 REESTABLISHMENT OF
of their dominion over the minds of the people,
and unweariedly strove to hinder their advance-
ment in knowledge, by which their false pretences
to love of liberty, are broadly and scandalously
exposed.
These strenuous endeavours to dull, or rather
to stupify the intellectual energies of the people,
called up a corresponding exertion of indignant
opposition on the part of the Freemasons, and
induced them to take the field in defence of the
rights of reason and the moral developement of
the nation. The Jesuitical party indulged high
hope of earning an easy victory over these their
sworn enemies, and commenced a regular attack
on the Freemasons, not only by denouncing their
aims as impious, but by launching against them
curses, both loud and deep, from the pulpit and
the altar. The result was, however, far from cor-
responding with their design ; for these senseless
and palpably interested tirades, served but to
elevate the Freemason order in the opinion of
thinking men, so that, instead of being thinned,
its ranks became daily strengthened by the
accession of men, high in character as in talent,
who, having obtained some insight into the
dangerous tendency of Jesuit intrigue, gladly
THE JESUIT ORDER. 187
enrolled themselves as confederates with a society,
whose united efforts were strenuously directed to
the one aim of frustrating the antipatriotic cabals
of those, who never had, and never could have,
a heart for either country or home. In this con-
flict (which has continued to the present hour,)
the Freemasons displayed an ever increasing zeal
for the sacred cause, of rescuing a people, so
richly endued with solid and estimable qualities
as the Belgians, from the palsying influence of
Jesuit rule, which they, on their part, left no
stones unturned to retain and perpetuate, evidenc-
ing on this, as on every former occasion, an
admirable perseverance, and an unfathomable
depth of cunning. Belgium, thus made the
arena of a conflict between the principles of good
and evil, affords a remarkable spectacle, which
should incite in every lover of truth, but more
particularly in us, as Germans, not only a feel-
ing of sympathy towards a nation of kindred
descent, but likewise, from a sense of common
interest, a desire to aid them with a prompt and
truly fraternal cooperation. Up ! then, Germans
and Belgians ! Up and be doing ! for a common,
for a sacred cause ! Strike hands in brotherly
union for liberty and light, against slavery and
188 REESTABLISHMENT OF
darkness ! Now is the moment for decision ;
delay not ! hesitate not ! history waits to record
your deeds ! nor dream that the cause of Belgium
can be neglected with impunity ! dream not that
the Jesuits are even now restricting their views
to a victory there, or will rest content with ob-
taining it, (though that were in itself ruinous
enough.) No ! they are already diligently engaged
in scattering from thence the prolific seed of future
( tares ' in the adjoining German provinces !
With a terrible consistency they are pursuing
in Switzerland the same line of conduct. Even
after the suppression of their order, Jesuits re-
mained in the Catholic cantons, following out their
projects with undeviating, though noiseless exer-
tions ; but raised, on its restoration, a bolder front
there than in any other part of Europe, establish-
ing their head quarters at Freiburg, which affords
not only a convenient central point, for arranging
their plan of campaign, but for corresponding
with, and guiding the various ramifications of
their widely spread affiliated associations.
Schools, on the old and well approved plan,
have been opened there, to which influential men
in various parts of Germany, but more especially
in Bavaria, send their sons, and receive them
THE JESUIT ORDER. 189
back well trained disciples of Loyola ; while the
common people are, in Switzerland no less than
in Belgium, worked upon by pompous ceremon-
ies, processions, miracles, and every other aid of
superstition, by which their senses can be daz-
zled, their imaginations inflamed, and their powers
of understanding stultified, so as to render easy
the task of retaining them in spiritual and moral
nonage. Aiming at nothing less than driving
their followers to absolute fanaticism, they con-
trive, with characteristic cunning, to intermingle
politics with religion, so as to insinuate them-
selves into the Swiss state and government affairs ;
and, having thus unhappily obtained the opportuni-
ty, they have not failed to use it, of exciting party
hate and civil war. Is it not revolting that they
should have dared, and that in direct contraven-
tion of the government prohibition of 1 789, to
celebrate the anniversary of the victory of Ville-
mangen, purchased by Swiss Catholics with the
blood of their compatriots in 1656 ? Is it not
disgusting to see them travelling from place to
place, like so many mountebanks, exhibiting
their spiritual wares for sale, and successfully se-
ducing men from the exercise of their reason,
that distinguishing gift of God to man ?
190 REESTABLISHMENT OF
Besides Freiburg, the Jesuits possess establish-
ments in Schwitz, in Settin, in Brieg, and most re-
cently of all in Lucerne, where, after a severe con-
test, they have made good their entrance, though
at the expense of both domestic and public peace.
But the Swiss blood which has been shed to pro-
mote the honour of an order assuming the name
of him, whose life and death were a personifica-
tion of love, cries loudly to heaven for vengeance,
and it will not cry in vain.
Within the limits of the German confederation,
Tyrol excepted, the Jesuits have not, praise be to
God, been as yet able to obtain, even from Catholic
princes, the desired permission for the introduction
of their order, or to be entrusted with the tuition
of youth, notwithstanding the zealous efforts made
to accomplish both, as well by the Jesuits them-
selves as by their uncowled partisans. Sad indeed
would it be, could they ever attain their wish !
though the admission of the Ligorians into Ba-
varia is quite bad enough ; for we have not now
first to learn, ' what great events from trivial
causes spring ;' and higher authority tells us,
" Behold, how great a matter a little fire kind-
leth V 1 * Let but the germ remain in quiet pos-
* James iii. 5.
THE JESUIT ORDER. 191
session of the soil, until it hath struck deep root,
and the full grown tree will tower into view be-
fore you are aware ! It is bad enough, I say-
again, that the attendance of German youth on
foreign Jesuit seminaries is not forbidden by their
respective governments. Take heed to my warn-
ing, ye members of German estates, ye deputies
to provincial parliaments ! Remember you are
not merely responsible to the present, but to
future generations ! Would that all would follow
the wholesome and patriotic example set by Fred-
erick William III. of Prussia, in 1827, peremp-
torily prohibiting the attendance of any Prussian
subject at a foreign Jesuit college ! for this wise
regulation comes in aid not only of Lutheranism,
but equally subserves the best interests of Catholic-
ism in Germany ; which is assuredly sufficiently
grown and robust to stand by itself, without re-
quiring the help of a Roman leading-string, or
rather of a Roman cord, which, held by the sove-
reign pontiff, can be used either to guide or to tie
German feet, and sometimes to suppress the free
throbbings of German hearts, at his pleasure.
Nor is this longing desire of the most right think-
ing and most pious German Catholics, for a Ca-
tholic German National Church, upon the
192 REESTABLISHMENT OF
footing of an equality of episcopal pastoral
rights and duties, wholly independent of
Rome's Supremacy, and with ultimate appeal to a
German National Council, to be regarded as a
feverish dream of modern lovers of innovation ;
for during centuries past, the noblest hearts and
the ablest heads, priests as well as laymen, have
approved and sought to realize the idea, which is
as simple and natural, as it is historically prac-
tical, and which has been frequently on the eve of
being accomplished, although, alas ! as often frus-
trated by Italian cunning. This idea, then, of a
free German Catholic Church, now once
again brought before the public mind, is naturally
an abomination to the Jesuits, whose interests are
so intimately bound up with those of the Roman
See ; and they exclaim against it as heretical and
impious, wholly oblivious of the fact, which every
schoolboy in these days well knows, that the
figment of the pope's supremacy is based on the
grossest falsehood. But the Jesuits are not satis-
fied with merely casting suspicion on the notion
of a German Catholic Church : well aware that, if
such a Church could be formed, religion and
government must be more drawn together, and
the internal security of prince and people reci-
THE JESUIT ORDER. 193
procally strengthened, they now seek to revive
the antiquated, and by all reasonable men,
exploded, pretensions of Rome, and teach both
publicly and privately, that, " the papal power
IS ABOVE ALL PRINCELY POWER." Along with
this equivocal doctrine, in which the spiritual is
made to take precedence of, and yet is mixed up
with, the temporal power, there are of course in-
volved various other principles highly dangerous
to the stability of governments, but all diverging
from and traceable to, this chief assumption, which
may be compared to the bloated spider, seated
in the centre of its web, ever on the watch to dart
out a new extension of its strong, though almost
viewless threads ; or to seize on and consume an
already entangled victim.
Scarcely any part of Europe has been, in mo-
dern times, so much the object of Jesuit enter-
prize as the Prussian Rhenish provinces, and the
circle of Munster. Counting on the pious cre-
dulity of the Catholic population, they have em-
ployed all their art in underhand attempts to stir
up party dissensions and hatred of Protestants ;
availing themselves, with unwearied zeal, of the
so called ' mixed marriages/ as a ready engine of
o
194 REESTABLISHMENT OF
discord, inveighing against such connexions with
a virulence wholly at variance with the doctrines
of love and peace proclaimed by the exalted Foun-
der of the Christian religion, and pronouncing
the offspring of such marriages, bastards. Simul-
taneously with these movements in the Rhine
provinces, arose an outcry against mixed mar-
riages, and all intercourse with Protestants, in the
extremest opposite boundaries of the Prussian
monarchy, proving almost to demonstration the
common origin of both. In pursuance of their
plan, the Jesuits, observing the increasingly im-
portant influence exercised by newspapers over the
public mind, determined on making them the
vehicle of their sentiments : and accordingly there
suddenly appeared in various places, sometimes
in the line mild of suggestion, sometimes of bold
assumption, anonymous defences of the Jesuit
hierarchical proceedings ; and while they were ex-
tolled, care was taken to hold up their opponents
to contempt and displeasure, in which neither
misrepresentation nor falsehood was wanting. Nor
indeed are they at the present moment sparingly
employed, (and that withabrazen effrontery, which
would surprise, were it new,) when the object is,
THE JESUIT ORDER. 195
to cast suspicion on whoever raises a voice against
darkness and superstition, or to draw down the
arm of power upon such as seek to maintain the
honour and independence of their nation, in oppo-
sition to Rome and its Jesuit auxiliaries : and well
do they know how to use the power which, through
their numerous affiliated associations and lay
coadjutors, they possess, in Germany, for the pur-
pose of procuring courtly favour.
But, however they may, serpent-like, glide and
twist about, worming themselves into every un-
guarded cranny, and how often soever falsehood
may have smiled in the triumph of anticipated
success, she cannot long maintain her ground
against simple unflinching truth ; and in this lies
the greatness, the sublimity of the freedom of
the press, — that by it, the poisoned lance can be
snatched from the hand of the dishonourable, un-
fair, combatant, the vizor be torn from his face, and
the eyes of a whole nation, aye, and of the whole
world, opened to distinguish on which side truth
and falsehood are really ranged. They learn to
see this ; and they learn likewise to feel, that not
what men command us to believe, but what
commends itself to our own conviction, can be
O 2
196 REESTABLISHMENT OF
the object of faith ; that every honourable mind
will more freely and joyfully follow his own con-
viction than all the edicts which power ever
issued !
And here I must again revert to the subject of
a free German Catholic Church. I cannot
let it rest ; I would wish to stand as a watchman
upon my watch-tower, and cry aloud, at every
hour of the day and of the night, f Princes, and
People ! priesthood and laity ! up and be
doing ! ' Princes, protect the just and sacred
cause ! but chiefly ye Protestant princes, I would
call on you to grant an asylum in your states
to the advocates and the master-workmen of the
undertaking. Protect, I implore you, the Catholic
congregations, who abjure their alliance with
Rome, and recognize in every attempted step
of the German Catholics towards its removal
the felt imperative necessity of a healthy, a
happy, and an honourable political existence !
And to you, Catholic priesthood and laity of
Germany, I would say, Cast aside the fear of
man, and hold out to each other the right hand
of brotherly fellowship ! God will stand by the
courageous in a just cause, and our own Ger-
THE JESUIT ORDER. 197
many, the soil of freedom and of loyalty, shall
no longer be desecrated by bondage to Jesuits
and Romanists ! Preach, ye Priests, a free Ca-
tholic church to your congregations, and stand
up fearlessly in defence of your priests, ye Ca-
tholic congregations ! and you, our Lutheran
brethren, may ye form a firm and living wall
around both, so that neither Jesuit nor Papist
may break through to assail the struggles for
moral liberty ! And then, when once the Ger-
man Catholics have burst the fetters of Rome,
then will arise the great day of peace over our
fatherland ; and should it even cost a night of toil,
of suffering, and of hardship, still the morning
of free national existence, of honour and of
moral purity, is cheaply purchased at such a
price ! Let not then any coward heart start, and
shrink back at the thought of unavoidably
painful efforts ! Still do the Jesuits glide about
in the darkness, labouring, and whispering, and
seducing ; striving for the sake of their own order,
to disturb domestic harmony, to shake the
reciprocal confidence of prince and people, and
to undermine the foundations of government.
Watch then, my countrymen, watch and act
198
REESTABLISHMENT OF
so, that their cunning, deep and versatile though
it be, may be wrecked on the firm rock of Ger-
man fidelity ! God grant that a truly German
loyalty, love of the truth, civilization and science,
may enclose our beloved fatherland as with an
impregnable wall, against every inroad of Je-
suitism ! such is the sincere prayer of one of the
most devoted of its sons !
And do the people of Germany alone stand in
need of such powerful warnings, of such pa-
thetic and warm-hearted appeals ? Is it not a
melancholy truth, that Jesuit art, if not Jesuit
rule, is daily becoming more apparent, even in
Great Britain, the head-quarters of Protes-
tantism ! And what shall we say of Ireland ?
where of late years the thousand times scotched
snake has again evinced signs not merely of ani-
mation but of activity, and seems gathering new
strength for some powerful and simultaneous
movement. Shall we then seek, or even wish, to
tighten the reins on the neck of freedom of con-
science ? Far be the thought ! No ! but we
would earnestly desire to open the eyes of our
fellow-countrymen of every creed, to the deeply
THE JESUIT ORDER. 199
dangerous tenets of a society which has, by the
adoption of principles, wholly at variance with
even the rudiments of morality and social order,
voluntarily placed itself without the pale of
legal protection, and summoned, as it were, every
man's hand against it, as its hand is against
every man, who does not subscribe to its rules
and submit to its domination! When we look
at the present state of Europe through the glass
of experience, are we not warranted in hinting, if
not in asserting, the probability that the same
machinations which are even now overspreading
Switzerland with insurrection and blood, are
traceable in the dissensions of the English Epis-
copacy, and in the ceaselessly troubled waters of
Irish politics, as much as in the more open apos-
tasies and avowed mental reservations of the
Puseyite school ? The maxim that ' the end
sanctifies the means/ admits of such an infinitude
of applications, that those who propound it can-
not justly exclaim against the most flagitious
imputations, whether of design or execution.
Surely, then, it were a consummation devoutly to
be wished, that our Catholic compatriots should,
like their German brethren, feel impelled to ex-
200 THE JESUIT ORDER.
punge the word Roman from their nomenclature,
and, abjuring all pontifical interference or supre-
macy, form themselves into an Irish or a British
Catholic Church, with the right to think, read,
and act according to their convictions, electing
their own pastors, and rejoicing in the real pos-
session of that religious liberty, of which they
hear so much, and have hitherto experienced so
little.
THE END.
LEONARD SEELEV, THAMES DITTON, ST'RREV,
Date Due
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