-7T&.-J?
RE
EKfll
\
Hi
71525 A
i i
if
CAVEN LIBRARY
KNOX COLLEGE
TORONTO
*>.
CAVEN LIBRARY
KNOX COLLEGE
TORONTO
MODERN JESUITISM
MODERN JESUITISM;
OE, THE
MOVEMENTS AND VICISSITUDES
f Mints in tlje Ip
EUSSIA, ENGLAND, BELGIUM, FEANCE,
SWITZEELAND,
AND OTHER PARTS.
BY
DR. EDW. H. MICHELSEN,
ACTHOE OF THE "OTTOMAN EMPIBE AND ITS EESOUBCESj" "LIFE OF NICHOLAS I.
AND "ENGLAND SINCE THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA," ETC.
LONDON:
DAETON AND CO., HOLBOEN HILL.
MDCCCLV.
CAVEN LIBRARY
KNOX COLLEGE
TORONTO
15251
LONDON :
WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, 37, BELL YARD,
TEMPLE BAR.
CONTENTS.
Page
THE JESUITS, SINCE THE DISSOLUTION OF THEIR ORDER
BY POPE CLEMENS XIV. IN 1773 . 1
PACCANARI AND THE "FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF
FAITH "......... 6
THE JESUITS IN RUSSIA, AFTER THE DISSOLUTION OF
THE ORDER ; THEIR FORMAL RESTORATION IN THAT
EMPIRE IN 1801 .... 12
RESTORATION OF THE ORDER IN NAPLES AND SICILY . . 17
GENERAL RESTORATION OF THE ORDER BY PIUS VII. IN
1814 19
THE ORDER IN RUSSIA UNDER ALEXANDER I. UNTIL
THEIR EXPULSION IN 1820 21
RESTORATION OF THE ORDER IN SPAIN IN 1815, AND ITS
EXPULSION IN 1835 34
INTRODUCTION OF THE ORDER IN PORTUGAL BY DOM
MIGUEL IN 1829 ; ITS EXPULSION BY DOM PEDRO
IN 1834 42
THE ORDER IN THE PAPAL STATES. INTERNAL SQUABBLES.
PATER-GENERAL ROOTHAAN ..... 45
THE ORDER IN THE TWO SICILIES AND SARDINIA . . 55
VI CONTENTS.
Page
THE OEDEE IN MODENA, PAEMA, AND TUSCANY ; ITS PBE-
VIOUS ATTEMPTS IN LUCCA 69
THE OEDEE IN THE AUSTEIAN DOMINIONS, UNDEE ITS
PEOPEE NAME, A8 ALSO OF THAT OF THE LIGORIANS 77
THE INTBIGUES AND ATTEMPTS OF THE JESUITS IN THE
BEST OF GEEMANY. THEIE SETTLEMENT IN ANHALT-
KOTHEN AND BAVAEIA 110
THE JESUITS IN GEEAT BEITAIN ..... 122
THE JESUITS IN BELGIUM 126
THE JESUITS IN FEANCE . 150
THE JESUITS IN SWITZEELAND . . . . . . 215
THE JESUITS SINCE THE EEVOLUTIONS OF 1848 . . 274
PREFACE.
THE author is not aware of the existence of any
modern history of the Jesuits, especially in the
English language, besides that of Nicolini (published
in 1852 by Bonn). This excellent history is full
and complete in all details as regards the origin,
development, and progress of the order, until its sup
pression in 1773. Its vicissitudes and movements,
however, since that period, are but rapidly sketched,
and the whole of the outlines comprised within the
narrow compass of only forty or fifty small pages.
The author has therefore endeavoured to fill up the
gap, and to render the modern sketch more compre
hensive, by collecting and compiling into a proper
chronological form the principal facts and data which
Vlll PREFACE.
are given in the contemporary writings, pamphlets,
and journals, which the Jesuit question had called
into life in the various countries where the fatal ope
rations of the members had most materially affected
the social institutions and welfare of the people.
LONDON, March, 1855.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, is the name of an
order which, without church functions and prelatures,
quickly acquired a prominent position in history by
its ambitious views and aspirations, to which there
is no parallel in ecclesiastical history. The least
part of that notorious eminence is due to the founder
of the society, Ignatius Loyola, who owes his reputa
tion more to the worldly wisdom and power of his
successors than to his own. When still a student at
Paris, he joined (16th August, 1534) Pierre Lefevre
of Savoy, Francis Xaver of Navarre, Laynez and Bo-
badilla, two high-spirited Spaniards, and Kodriguez,
a Portuguese nobleman, in the resolution to make a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the purpose of convert-
03
X INTRODUCTION.
ing the infidels in that part of the eastern world.
But as the war with the Turks prevented at that
time the accomplishment of the project the journey
to Jerusalem they dispersed themselves to the
various universities of upper Italy, to enlist new
members for their religious scheme. Loyola re
paired, in company with Lefevre and Laynez, to
Rome, where he carried into execution (1539) his
plan for the establishment of an order of a peculiar
character and bearing. In consequence of a vision
in a dream, he called it the " Society of Jesus/
the members of which he bound, besides the usual
monastic vows of poverty, chastity, blind and implicit
obedience to their superiors, also to a fourth duty,
to repair gratuitously as missionaries to any land
or part of the world whither the pope may choose
to send them, and to execute their mission with
all the zeal and by any means in their power. The
novices were to undergo besides many other spi
ritual exercises, also the lowest drudgeries and the
most disgusting services in the hospitals, after the
example of Xaver, who instituted such low ser-
INTRODUCTION. XI
vices as the most honourable task of the chivalrous
order. A special bull of Pope Paul III. (27th Sept.,
1540) confirmed the order in due form, and at the
meeting of the members in the following year at
Rome, the founder was nominated the first general of
the society, though he was but little qualified to be
the head of a comprehensive administration, his
rough plans having generally been properly deve
loped and carried into practical force by Laynez,
and some others of his learned friends. Julius III.,
like Paul III., granted to the order prerogatives
which no corporation, spiritual or temporal, ever
was in possession of. Not only were they to enjoy
all the privileges of the mendicant friars and lay
clergy they were not only free of the jurisdiction
of any episcopal or secular authority, save that of
the pope and their own superiors, but they were
also to be allowed to perform all clerical duties
anywhere and anyhow, even during the time of an in
terdiction. They were, moreover, empowered to grant
absolution of sins and church penalties, to change
the special vows of laymen into other good works,
Xll INTRODUCTION.
to build churches, acquire estates and property, to
dispense, according to circumstances, with the usual
regulations of the church, and even to act against
the canonical laws without first consulting the will
and opinion of even the pope himself. To the pater-
general was given unlimited authority over all the
members; he could send them with missions any
where he chose ; he had the power to appoint them
everywhere as professors of theology or divinity, and
invest them with academical titles equal to those
given by the faculties of the secular universities.
The fundamental principle of the constitution of
the society, is the universal spread of the order, and
the most consolidated internal union and connection
of the members throughout the world. The society
is accordingly divided into several classes or ranks.
To the first and lowest class belong the novices;
they are taken from all classes of society without
regard to birth and station, and their only and abso
lute recommendation is talent and education. Their
probation lasts for two years, during which time
INTRODUCTION. Xlll
they are exercised into blind obedience and self-
denial. These novices are not yet ranked among
the real members, the lowest of whom consist of
secular co-labourers or coadjutors, who, having made
no monastic vow, can be dismissed or released at
any time. They act partly as subordinates and
partly as allies to the members of the higher ranks.
Many high statesmen, functionaries, and other in
fluential personages (as Louis XIV. was in his old
age), had sometimes the honour of being received
into that class. Higher in rank stand the scholars
and spiritual coadjutors, men of knowledge and eru
dition, monks who have made solemn monastic vows,
and who entirely devote themselves to the educa
tion of youth. They are employed as professors,
preachers, rectors, and tutors in families, and as
missionary assistants. The highest rank occupy the
professed monks, who have distinguished themselves
by worldly wisdom, energy, and loyalty to the order.
In addition to their monastic vows, they are em
ployed in all sorts of missions, and serve as mission
aries amongst the heathens and infidels, as regents
Xiv INTRODUCTION.
m distant colonies, as confessors of princes and
monarchs, and as representatives of the order in
places where no colleges are as yet founded, though
they themselves are exempt from the duty of
instructing the youth.
It is only these professed monks alone, who have
the right to vote in the election of a pater-general.
The latter is not eligible to the post without
having previously served himself in the above
capacity of a professed monk. He appoints from
the midst of that voting congregation his assistants,
provincials, superiors, and directors. The general
is elected for life, resides at Rome, and has a council
of his own, consisting of one admonitor and five
assistants, who are supposed to represent the five
principal nations : the Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians,
French, and Germans. He receives reports from the
provincials once every month, and from the supe
riors of the cloisters and rectors of the colleges once
every three months, on all matters connected with
religion and politics, as also on the character, con-
INTRODUCTION. XV
duct, merits, and capacities of the individual members.
Being in possession of these reports, he gives his
instructions accordingly, and acts upon the whole as
the supreme head of the order, the members of which,
from high to low, are obliged to obey implicitly his
commands without asking questions, or questioning
the expediency of any of the measures he may think
proper to adopt. He is even above the laws and
statutes of the order ; he can alter them whenever he
thinks it advisable to do so ; he can punish, exile, or
promote any member of the society by a single stroke
of the pen, or even a mere instruction by mouth.
Already, at the death of the founder (1556), the
society numbered about 1000 members in twelve
states. The first was Portugal, where Xaver and
Rodriguez (1540) had established colleges at the in
vitation of the king. The order met also with the
same rapid success in the Italian states and Spain,
where the example of one of the most powerful
grandees, Francis Borgia, Duke of Granada, was
followed by a great number of individuals of more
XVI INTRODUCTION.
or less eminence. Also in Catholic Germany, and
more especially in Austria and Bavaria, the order
rapidly spread, particularly amongst the students at
the universities of Vienna, Prague, and Ingolstadt,
where it maintained an influential dominion for more
than two hundred years.
By its strictly hierarchical principles, its inde
fatigable activity and successful operations in prose-
lytism, the Catholic princes and monarchs, as also
the popes themselves, had recognized in the order
the most efficacious antidote against the fast growing
Protestant religion at that period. Also to the
masses generally, the Jesuits had soon recommended
themselves as the offspring of the new spirit of the
age an appellation that suited even the views of
anti-monastic individuals. To those to whom the
Franciscan monks had appeared too clumsy and
vulgar, the Dominicans too rigorous and gloomy,
the finely-formed, cheerful, and social Jesuits were
just the monks calculated to please the eye and the
heart in a far higher degree. No one could re-
INTRODUCTION. XV11
proach tliem with idling away their time in solitary
prayers or chanting of hymns. Their devotional
hours were few and short, their conduct meek and
civil, and their apparel the same as that of the lay-
clergy, or even of common civilians. They were,
moreover, instructed to proceed very gently in their
active spheres of religious and political conversion, to
win people by yielding to their peculiar tastes and
views, and generally not to manifest any passion or
zealous excitement, but to keep their own views and
measures secret and concealed, in order to carry out
the better, by an external show of sang froid and
seeming carelessness of manner, plans which might
otherwise meet with public opposition. The spirit of
this sort of worldly wisdom, or rather cunning, to be
adopted in the affairs of social, religious, and poli
tical transactions, chiefly emanated from the second
general of the order, Laynez, who so modified the
sombre and over-rigorous rules of the first founder
as better to fit the members for social intercourse in
the management of affairs so closely connected with
the sole object in view the universal sovereignty of
XV111 INTRODUCTION.
the holy chair against the attacks of Protestantism,
princes, and national bishops. This was the task
allotted to the Jesuits, who tried to accomplish the
object in view under the pretext of promoting
throughout the world true religion or the honour of
God (in majorem Dei gloriam, as is manifest from
the inscription of their escutcheon), by acting upon
the minds of the youth, in the establishment of
schools, and of the adults, by means of social inter
course, the confessional, and the pulpit. At the
death of Laynez (1565), that spirit had already pene
trated so deeply into the internal life of the order,
that neither the example of monastic piety practised
by his successor, Francis Borgia, nor the suggestion
of the popes, Paul IV. and V., to assimilate the
pious devotions of the order to those of the other
monastic orders, produced the least effect upon the
members.
. . . . ..-.. ist > ..... -it*
Their missions out of Europe had been crowned
with almost incredible success. Francis Xaver and
his assistants have converted to Christianity within
INTRODUCTION. XIX
ten years, from 1541 to 1551, hundreds of thousands
of heathens, in Goa, Travancur, Cochin China, Ma
lacca, Ceylon, and even Japan, Brazil, and Paraguay,
where subsequently the Jesuit missionaries brought
about the subjection of the aborigines, amongst
whom they had previously introduced the light of
civilization and education. Africa alone seemed deaf
to the teachings of the Jesuits; the natives of the
western coast would not suffer the missionaries to
approach their territory ; the Copts in the east lite
rally drove them away; while the Abyssinians
treated them even as spies and traitors. On the
other hand, their influence in Europe had increased
so rapidly that all traces of the effects of the Re
formation were soon lost and annihilated in the
Catholic states of this part of the world.
Claudius Aquaviva, a descendant of the ducal race
of Atri, the fourth general of the Jesuits (1581
1615), became the creator of their famous school
system, and the plan of education as adopted in
all the Jesuit colleges. Their teachers were distin-
XX INTRODUCTION.
guished for erudition, the arts, and the sciences,
and no wonder that the order soon inspired the
learned world with deep respect for their esta
blishments. But the Jesuits also knew how to
profit from their position, capacities, and fame.
Their establishments and estates increased from day
to day, their churches and confessionals were never
empty, while legacies and donations flowed in abun
dantly on all sides. The particulars of their internal
constitution they wished to be neither known nor
imitated. Consequently, when a number of females
in Italy and the lower Rhenish provinces had formed
a notion (1623) to establish an order of female
Jesuits, similar in constitution, functions, and classes
to that of the male Jesuits, the latter induced the
pope (1631) to interdict the formation of such an
order.
Notwithstanding the high favour in which the
Jesuits stood with the princes and the people in the
different states of Europe, the non -Jesuitical clergy
and the university professors soon discovered the
INTRODUCTION. XXI
mischief which had been worked by them. They
became odious to the bishops, curates, and univer
sities by their prominent privileges, to the old
monastic orders by their encroachments upon their
rights and clerical duties, and finally to the govern
ments and judicial authorities by their meddling
with politics and state transactions, the evil effects of
which were seen in Portugal under the reigns of
John III. and Sebastian (their pupil), when, after
the death of the latter, Portugal had been trans
ferred by their intrigues to the Spanish crown. For
twenty years the parliament and the high clergy of
France, therefore, stoutly opposed the attempt of the
Jesuits to settle in the kingdom. The university at
Paris declared the order useless, and incompatible
with the rights of the Gallican Church, and it was
only owing to the favour of the court that they were
allowed (1562) to settle in France under the name of
" fathers of the college of Clermont," and by fore
going all their most important privileges. Gradu
ally, however, they recovered their rights and privi
leges, and more especially during the civil war,
XX11 INTRODUCTION.
under the protection of the Guises, though they had
been suspected of participation in the murder of
Henry III. In 1594, it is true, they were banished
from France, on account of the murderous attempt
of their pupil, Chatel, upon the life of Henry IV. ;
but in 1603 they had not only returned to France,
but were even playing their former part of confessors
at the French court.
At still greater eminence had they arrived in Ger
many under the Ferdinands II. and III., while in
the thirty years war they displayed political talents
of an extraordinary character ; they were in fact the
soul of the Ligue, which did hardly anything of im
portance without their advice and consent. By means
of the Jesuit pater Lamormain, confessor of the em
peror, Wallenstein fell, and Bavaria was saved for
Austria.
In France, however, a new storm broke over their
head, through Pascal s " Lettres Provinciates"
(1666), in which they were charged with loose
INTRODUCTION. XX111
morals, selfish motives, unfair means, mental reser
vation, &c. ; while, in some towns of Italy, many of
the members had been guilty even of seduc
tion and violation odious acts which brought
the order into general disrepute throughout Europe,
and compelled them to fly in order to escape the
popular rage, or Lynch-law of the present day.
But what particularly offended the middle classes
against the Jesuits was their mercantile traffics
with the raw productions of the trans -Atlantic coun
tries where their missionaries had settled. Also
in France, the mercantile speculations which they
carried on, despite all papal orders to the con
trary, were the chief cause of their fall and ruin.
Ever since 1743, they had established, through
their missionary, Pater Lavalette, a regular house
of business at Martinique, which bought up all
the raw productions of that and the neighbouring
West India islands, and shipped them to France.
Two vessels, laden with a large cargo of these pro
ductions, valued at two millions of francs, had, how
ever, been captured by the English. They had been
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
consigned by Lavalette as a remittance in payment
to the house Lioncy, at Marseilles, and as the
Jesuits would not bear the loss of the cargo, or re
imburse the amount, an action was brought against
them, when they were condemned to the full pay
ment of the debt and costs. That lawsuit was also
the means of bringing to light many other abuses
and frauds in their transactions and mercantile deal
ings. Laurence Bicci, their general, having refused
to modify in the least the constitution of the order,
by his declaration " Sint ut sunt, aut non sint" (It
must remain as it is, or cease altogether,) a royal de
cree (1764) abolished the order as a political society,
despite the protestations of Pope Clement XIII.
They were also expelled from Spain in 1767, and
soon afterwards likewise from Naples, Parma, and
Malta, which at last induced Pope Clement XIV.
entirely to dissolve the order in due form (21st July,
1773) by his bull " Dominus ac redemptor noster."
MODERN JESUITISM,
THE JESUITS,
Since the Dissolution of their Order by Pope
Clemens XIV. in 1773.
THE fable of the Hydra in the ancient mythology
has become re-cast into an historical fact in modern
times under a different name, the " Order of Jesus."
This many-headed monster of papal usurpation had
in process of time become so intergrown with the
spirit of ultramontane Catholicism, that neither
the hatred of the Cabinets, nor even the bull issued
by Pope Clemens XIV., by which the order was so
lemnly and formally dissolved, had the effect of an
nihilating its existence in the true sense of the term.
After the promulgation of that bull, the Jesuits
were certainly so far obedient to the papal injunction
as to discontinue living congregated under one roof,
or to appear in public in the costume of their order ;
but beyond these outward compliances they consi-
2 DEATH OF CLEMENS XIV. HIS SUCCESSOR, PIUS VI.
dered the bull as regarded the effectual abolition of
the order invalid, unbinding, and contrary to the
spirit of Catholic progress. Abandoned by the head
of their church, the ex- Jesuits redoubled their
efforts to keep the scattered fraternity in active zeal
and union, hoping that at no distant time the restora
tion of the order would follow in the natural course
of events. To this anticipation they were not a little
encouraged by the death of their inveterate enemy,
Pope Clemens, which ensued under rather suspicious
circumstances one year after the promulgation of
the famous bull, as also by the favourable reception
they had met with in some parts of Europe, in spite
of the papal warning and denunciation. Neither
were they mistaken in their speculation ; the suc
cessor of Clemens, Pope Pius VI., proved a warm
friend of the order. He tacitly approved of their
movements, and was only restrained by considerations
for the courts of the Bourbons, from re-establishing
the order in due form and solemn procession. He
allowed them, however, to receive novices in some
parts of Europe, and more especially at Vienna and
Naples, where they were soon at their old game of
working miracles and enlisting the feelings of the
INTRIGUES OF THE EX-JESUITS. O
masses by pampering to their senses by all sorts of sen
sual tricks and intrigues. By such and similar means,
the Jesuits succeeded in reconstructing their broken
institution in many states of the Catholic world,
assisted as they were in their manoeuvres by the
ready sympathy of the masses, who looked at them
as martyrs and persecuted members of society.
Neither had their influence become less decisive and
powerful even at some of the Catholic courts of
Europe. In Portugal, under the bigoted Maria
Francisca (1777-1792), they managed even to remove
from the Administration the enlightened Pombal, to
destroy all that statesman had effected for the moral
and material welfare of the country, and to re-
introduce the whole rubbish of old abuses which
Pombal had been at so great pains in clearing away.
In Bavaria the lewd and hypocritical Charles Theodor
(1779-1799) was a ready machine in their hands.
In his dominions of the Lower Rhine, the dissolution
act of the order was confined to a trifling change
in the dress, while the members continued to live to
gether in their college at Diisseldorff, where they re
ceived novices (under the appellation of ex- Jesuits) and
acted upon the whole as if nothing had happened to
B 2
4 ASCENDANCY OF THE JESUITS IN VARIOUS STATES.
check their baneful operations. At the university of
Ingolstadt (Bavaria) most of the professors were
ex- Jesuits in disguise. In Austria, under Leopold
II. and Francis II., they were the soul of the re
action then stirring against the reforms of Joseph II.,
while in Belgium they were even among the ringleaders
of the insurrection which had broken out in conse
quence of those reforms. So great indeed was their
power in Belgium, that they set their face for a long
time against the Abolition-act of Clemens, and not
less against the Government who had ordered the
enforcement of its provisions. They even appeared
in public in the costume of their order, and enrolled
new members as in the previous periods.* At their
college at Liege, depravity and debauchery had
placed (1779) a great number of the students under
medical treatment for secret diseases. It was also
in Belgium whence the proposition emanated (1790)
for the restoration of the order ; and the example was
imitated in 1793 by the Catholic cantons of Switzer
land, where the proposal was supported by eleven
bishops at Rome and most of the Catholic bishops
in Hungary. The outbreak of the first French
* Vide Sequel.
THEIR HOSTILITY TO THE FRENCH INNOVATIONS. 5
revolution, the ex-Jesuits ascribed, in pamphlets and
from the pulpit, as a just retribution of Heaven for
the sin committed against their order. With the
dissolution of the order, they said, the bulwark of
both the throne and the altar has been demolished ;
and the consequence was, anarchy and infidelity,
evils that can be remedied only by the restoration of
the order, which commands implicit obedience to
God and to the rulers by his right. Neither would
they have failed to accomplish their object in those
stormy times, if the triumph of the French arms had
been less signal. Exasperated in the extreme against
France and her innovations, they kindled the civil
war in the Vendee, which, as it assumed the character
of a war of religion, was also attended by all the
horrors that usually characterise such a war. The
emblem of the heart of Christ, which served as a sign
of recognition among the secret disciples of Loyola,
had been found to exist at that time also among
the rustic royalists of Western France, and Charette,
one of the chiefs of the Vendee insurrection, had
that very emblem even embroidered on the collar of
his coat, though he was far from being an orthodox
enthusiast.
NICOLO PACCANARI.
PACCANARI AND THE "FATHERS AND
MOTHERS OF FAITH."
THE French revolution, while it prevented on the
one hand the formal re-establishment of the order,
stimulated on the other hand its regeneration,
though under a different name. The general sym
pathy which was aroused at the European courts
in favour of the ex- Jesuits, by the efforts of the
French emigrants abroad, was suddenly brought
into action by the appearance of Nicolo Paccanari,
an adventurer and native of Tyrol. From a tailor
(at Trient) he became a papal soldier, and after the
outbreak of the French revolution he thought he
could contrive to restore the Jesuit order. For
that purpose he repaired to Vienna, where he in
gratiated himself with the bigoted Archduchess
Maria Anna, and persuaded her to spend her private
property in the endowment of an institution under
the title " Fathers of Faith." Pius VI. confirmed
(1792) the new society for fear of meeting, as was
THE EX-JESUITS IN ENGLAND. 7
plainly hinted to him by Paccanari, with a similar
end as did his predecessor, who it was rumoured had
died of poison. Pius even allowed the members
of the new society to wear the costume of the Jesuits
with some trifling addition, and took them under his
special protection, while the Austrian Duchess went
in her zeal so far as even to establish various colonies
of the "fathers " beyond Austria, and more especially
at Venice, whence they soon spread all over Italy,
France, Holland, and England.
Like many other refugees, the ex-Jesuits too,
had found an hospitable asylum on Britannia s
shores, where Thomas Weld (father of Cardinal
Weld) farmed out to them a magnificent mansion
(Stonyhurst), with considerable lands attached to it,
near Blackburn in Lancashire, for a mere nominal
rent, while in his Will he bequeathed the whole
property to them unconditionally. The pious fathers,
as may be imagined, converted the mansion into a
college, after the model of the Jesuit institutions
abroad, and they found so much support and en
couragement from the rich Catholic inhabitants in
England that they were soon enabled to build a
second establishment or college, Kensington House,
8 THE JESUITS IN FRANCE.
nearly opposite the palace of that name. Stonyhurst
became afterwards the nursery and mother of all
other similar establishments in England, while the
existence of Kensington House was but of short dura
tion. The latter had been frequented mostly by the
sons of the French emigrants of rank, and was con
ducted by the Abbe Broglie, son of the Marshal of
that name. The members, from national pride,
refused for a long time to acknowledge as their su
perior a Mr. Stone, the rector of Stonyhurst and PRO
VINCIAL of the " fathers of faith " in Great Britain, who
in return refused them the loan of money to defray the
expenses of their establishment, which in consequence
fell into decay, bankruptcy, and final dissolution.
It was in France, however, where the fathers of
faith " (alias Jesuits) had made the greatest progress.
Every castle of the expatriated nobility served them
as a loophole, whence they carried on their operations
all over the country, until they found warm friends
and supporters in the influential Cardinal Fesch and
the Abbe Emery, superior of St. Sulpice. At the
intercession of the former, Napoleon granted (1800)
the fathers, in violation of the law of 1792, the free
settlement at Lyons, whence they successfully endea-
THEIR PROGRESS THERE. 9
voured to spread throughout the country, under the
various names of " fathers of faith," Paccanarites, and
" adorers of Jesus" At Amiens, Belley, and various
other places of France, they established schools, which
were soon numerously attended by nearly all classes
of society. But when, encouraged by success, they
attempted at proselytism even among the medical,
polytechnic, and law students at Paris, Napoleon
thought it advisable to abolish (1804) all their insti
tutions, and order the members to return to their
respective homes, and live there in the character of
lay-clergy. The imperial order was however but
imperfectly obeyed ; the favour and protection of
Fesch and his sister, the mother of Napoleon, enabled
them to continue uninterruptedly, though secretly,
their active intrigues, even in the French metropolis
itself. Nay, they even contrived to re-establish there
their institution, though Napoleon himself would
never give his consent to it, despite the low profane
flatteries which they bestowed on him.* In revenge,
* In one of the catechisms composed by them at that
period, it is said " To honour and serve the Emperor is to
honour and serve God himself; that those who fail in their
duty towards our Emperor render themselves worthy of
eternal damnation." Montglavre and Chalas, p. 388.
B3
10 PACCANARl s NEW INSTITUTION.
the " fathers" managed in 1809 to establish in Italy a
widely-ramified society under the name of the " Theo-
cratico-anti-Napoleon Union/ which, when discovered
in 1810, was found to number so many men of high
rank and distinction, that Napoleon thought proper to
restrict his punishment to only thirty of the ringleaders.
About the same time Paccanari himself met with a
sad end. This man, a mixture of greatness and
meanness, of boldness and temerity, who, himself one
of the most uneducated of his class, had declared
that the only means of salvation for the present
generation is to be sought in reducing the human
race to the ignorance of the barbarous ages this
Paccanari, we say, had persuaded the Archduchess
Maria Anna, who resided at that time at Rome, to
found also there a female society under the name
" MOTHERS OF FAITH," and to entrust him with the
entire management of the institution. The Inqui
sition, however, soon suspected that Paccanari, who
had in the eyes of his votaries already advanced to
the rank of a saint, had some other rather sensual
motives for frequenting the female institution besides
that of praying with the pious sisters. An investi
gation took place (1804), when he was found guilty
HIS SAD END. 11
and condemned to perpetual imprisonment, from
which he was however delivered by the entrance of
the French into Rome. New misdemeanors, how
ever, brought him again into prison, from which
he made his escape, to terminate his life, as it ap
pears, in a more fatal way. His body was found
in the Tiber pierced by daggers. His influence had
however been on the wane in Italy long before that
catastrophe, owing less to his own adventures and
intrigues than to the tyranny with which he treated
his subordinates in the discharge of their duties.
Many of his adherents had abandoned him long
before his death, and repaired to their brethren in
France, England, or Russia, in which latter country
the Jesuits had lived for a century in undisturbed
peace and quiet.
12 THE JESUITS IN RUSSIA.
THE JESUITS IN RUSSIA,
After the Dissolution of the Order ; their formal
Restoration in that Empire in 1801.
IT was a phenomenon not less strange than remark
able, that the collective members of the Jesuit order
should, after their banishment from their homes, the
Catholic countries, not only find an asylum, but even
be allowed to establish themselves formally and to
carry on their previous movements in countries such
as England, Holland, and Prussia, where they had
always been considered as the bitterest enemies of
the throne and the church. Still more surprising is
the tenderness with which the disciples of Loyola
were treated in Russia in the days of their adversity.
Neither would it be reasonable to ascribe their suc
cess in Russia to feelings of generosity and sympathy
entertained by the empress Catherine for the perse
cuted monks, and more especially when we consider
that their treacherous behaviour to that empire
during the previous centuries had induced Peter the
Great (1719) to banish them for ever from his
PROBABLE REASONS FOR BEING WELL TREATED. 13
dominions. The real motive of this favourable
treatment must be sought in the political position
of Russia at that period. Shortly before the disso
lution of the order by Clemens XIV., the division of
Poland had taken place (1772), when, in the share
obtained by Catherine II. for Russia, was included
also the province White Russia, where the Loyolites
possessed several colleges and owned more than
10,000 serfs, and where their influence upon the
ignorant and brutish population was without parallel.
The Empress saw at once the great advantages to be
gained in the new province, by making active allies of
the religious body, and by becoming herself the pro
tector or patron of the order. She might moreover
also have been actuated to the step, by a desire to
show to the world how little authority the pope pos
sessed in her Catholic dominions, that, notwithstand
ing his bull for the dissolution of the order, she was
resolved to keep the latter intact in Russian Poland ;
and secondly, perhaps, to be saved the expenses of
providing national instruction for the Catholic youth
in the newly acquired province, a consideration which
also induced Frederick the Great to tolerate the order
(though under a different name) in Silesia, after their
14 EMPRESS CATHERINE S FAVOUR TO THE JESUITS.
banishment from the Catholic countries. If these
were indeed her motives for the mode in which she
acted in the case of the Jesuits, the Empress was not
mistaken in her calculations. The good services
which the Jesuits subsequently rendered her by their
intrigues and plots against the very country where
they had been overwhelmed for centuries with kind
ness and privileges, have greatly contributed to seal,
perhaps for ever, the destiny of unhappy Poland.
It was in vain that Charles III. of Spain added his
exertions to those of the holy father to dissuade
Catherine from her resolution to take under her
protection the order and its members. The Empress,
in reply, referred to the Charter she had granted in
1772 to all Catholic institutions generally, from
which grant, she alleged, the subsequent bull of
dissolution had no power to exclude even the order of
the Jesuits. She even threatened Clemens XIV. to
withdraw her protection from all her Catholic subjects,
should he insist on the execution of his bull in her
dominions. The consequence was, that she not only
confirmed the " fathers " in the undisturbed posses
sions of all their estates in White Russia, but even
exempted them from all ground-rent and taxes on
STANISLAS, ARCHBISHOP OF MOHILOW. 15
the same, and allowed them to receive in their circle
as many of the ex-Jesuits abroad who should be in
clined to settle in her dominions.
A certain Stanislas Sestrenzevicz (previously a
Calvinist, and Prussian officer in a hussar regiment,
but, since 1774, Catholic bishop of Malvi in White
Russia) was in 1778 provided by Pius VI. with un
limited power and control over all the ecclesiastical
orders in his diocese. Aware of the real sentiments
of the new pope as regarded the Jesuit order, Stanis
las at once granted (1779) to his protegees, the Loyo-
lites, the formal establishment of a noviciate in White
Russia, in return for which favour, the latter pro
moted by their influence with the Empress, the ele
vation of Stanislas to the newly created archbishopric
at Mohilow. The "fathers" did so, however, under
the condition that one of the members of their order,
Pater Benislowski, should be installed coadjutor to
the new metropolitan. Benislowski repaired (1783)
on an imperial mission to Rome, to obtain for the
new archbishop the pallium, in which he succeeded
after considerable difficulty. He was, however, not
so fortunate in the second part of his mission, to re
store in due form the order of the Jesuits, as the pope
16 CREATION OF A VICAR-GENERAL IN RUSSIA.
could not possibly accede to the request without
irritating the courts of the Bourbons. Pius found
it nevertheless expedient tacitly to sanction the
election (1782) of Ezernievitz as Vicar-general of
their order in Russia, the election having been made
by the resident Jesuits there by permission of the
Empress.
It may not be unimportant to mention, that
Catherine II. showered all these favours on the
" fathers " under the strict condition, that none of
their actions and movements should in any way clash
with the established laws of the land, and that their
own statutes should in every respect be in harmony
with those of the Russian empire. Catherine s suc
cessor, Paul I., was even a greater admirer of the
Loyolites than his mother. He saw in them, at the
representations of the French emigrants, a mighty
bulwark against the further spread of revolutionary
notions. He granted them (1800) the use of the
Catholic church in his metropolis, allowed them to
establish there a school, which they soon converted
into a regular college, and supported with great zeal
the efforts of their Vicar-general Kareu for the formal
restoration of the order throughout Europe. His
ATTEMPT TO RESTORE THE ORDER IN FRANCE. 17
success in that respect was however only partial;
Pius VII. could only be persuaded to grant (1801)
the restoration of the order in the Russian empire
alone, naming Kareu General of the Jesuits residing
in that country, but he would not venture to extend
that measure to the other countries of Europe.
RESTORATION OF THE ORDER IN NAPLES
AND SICILY.
FROM this partial restoration of the order, may be
dated its formal and general regeneration a few years
afterwards. Having formed secret unions throughout
Europe, Pater Gabriel Gruber (successor of Kareu in
Russia) applied (1803), through the medium of the
French ambassador at Vienna, to Napoleon Bona
parte for the restoration of the order in France, pro
mising in return a constant readiness on the part
of the order to promote the Consul s political views
in any way possible. The First Consul not being
anxious to form such a dangerous alliance, returned no
18 RESTORATION OF THE ORDER IN NAPLES.
reply to Gruber s letter. The latter was, however,
more successful with Ferdinand IV. of Naples, who
had in his younger years, though he greatly contri
buted to the dissolution of the order, become a con
vert to the Czar s views by bitter personal experience
and the fatal results of the French revolution. The
delegate of Gruber, Pater Angioli, found it there
fore no difficult matter to persuade Ferdinand to join
in the application to the pope of granting the same
favour for Naples as he did for Russia. Pius
VII. readily complied with the request by a breve
(1804) . After the lapse of a few months, the Jesuits
occupied already at Naples three mansions, which
they were about to convert into schools and convents,
when, unfortunately for them, the French took
possession (1806) of the greatest part of the kingdom,
and Ferdinand and his court were obliged to fly and
take up their abode in Sicily. Thither the French
commander shipped also his favourite Loyolites, who
by Ferdinand s liberality numbered in 1814, in Sicily,
200 members, with four colleges and one noviciate.
GENERAL RESTORATION OF THE ORDER IN 1814. 19
GENERAL RESTORATION OF THE ORDER
BY PIUS VII. IN 1814.
THE year 1814, which saw the triumph of old
Europe over the great son of the Revolution, wit
nessed also the formal restoration of the society of
Jesus in all the states of Catholic Christendom. It
was the first act of Pope Pius VII. after his release
from captivity, which he had undergone for five years,
since 1808. This general restoration was one of the
consequences of a time when both Catholics and Pro
testants were bent upon re-introducing old institutions
into the new order of things, that they might serve in
future as a defence against the demon of revolution.
On the 7th August, 1814, the holy father, Pius VII.,
repaired in solemn procession to the Jesuit church at
Rome, where, after saying mass at the altar of St. Ig
natius, he ordered the public reading of the bull (Sol-
licitudo omnium Ecclesiarum), in which he restored
the order of Jesus, together with the whole of its
20 FALSE REASONS FOR RESTORING THE ORDER.
constitution and privileges, in all Catholic countries
indiscriminately. The contents of that bull are full
of contradictions, if not untruths. He speaks in it
of the dangers that were still surrounding the Chair
of Peter, though he well knew that they no longer
existed since the termination of the war, which, on
the contrary, had opened the best prospects for papal
aggression by the general mania in Europe, of reduc
ing everything to the old anti-revolutionary regime.
He further assures in it, that he restored the order at
the earnest request of the whole Catholic world, while
in truth, France, Germany, and Holland only learnt
for the first time from the papal bull itself, that they
had ever evinced an anxiety for the restoration. It is
even a notorious fact that the Emperor Francis I.
showed great reluctance to comply with the papal bull,
and that also the Prince Regent of Portugal and Brazil
(afterwards King John VI.) had formally protested
(1815) against the repristination of the order, and
openly declared that he would never tolerate the Jesuits
in his dominions, nor ever enter into negotiations
with the holy father on the subject* It was in fact
only Spain, Italy, and a few cantons of Switzerland,
that rejoiced at the restoration of the order, and for
ATTEMPT TO CONTROL PUBLIC EDUCATION. 21
some years afterwards the order was indeed only in
these countries legally acknowledged by the state,
while in the rest of Europe the Governments were ex
tremely slow in complying with the holy father s will.
THE ORDER IN RUSSIA UNDER
ALEXANDER I.
Until their Expulsion in 1820.
WE have seen in the foregoing pages how kindly
the Loyolites were received and treated in Russia by
Catherine II. and Paul I. Neither did Alexander I.
treat them less so after his accession to the throne.
In 1805 the General of the order, Berzozowsky
(successor of Gruber), conceived the plan of bringing
into the hands of the order, the whole depart
ment of public instruction in that most schismatic
empire. The first steps towards the accomplish
ment of the plan consisted in the attempt at having
their own college at Palozk raised to the rank of a
university, and endow it not only with all the
privileges peculiar to the other universities of the
22 THE JESUIT COLLEGE AT POLOZK.
empire, but also and chiefly with the control
and supervision of all the schools of the order
existing throughout Russia, a right that exclusively
belonged to the state, or Minister of Public In
struction. The attempt gave rise to disputes be
tween the Jesuits and the faculty of the University
of Wilna, at that time the most exalted in Russia.
The struggle assumed the same bitter character which
distinguished similar conflicts before and since that
period, between the pious fathers and the Catholic
universities at Paris * and other places. Assisted by
the powerful influence of Count Joseph de Maistre,
the Sardinian Minister at the court of St. Petersburg,
Alexander granted the Jesuits their request, and
raised the college of Polozk (1812) to the rank of
a university, against the will and remonstrances of
Prince Galitzin, the then Minister of Worship and
Public Instruction.
If the disciples of Ignatius would only possess in
the days of prosperity half the prudence, moderation,
and perseverance which we cannot help admiring in
them in times of their adversity, verily, the dominion
of the world, after which they are continually striving,
* Vide Sequel.
THEIR ATTEMPT AT PROSELYTISM. 23
and of which they had so frequently possessed them
selves, would not so easily escape their grasp, and
their triumph and glory might, at all events, not
be subject to so frequent changes and vicissitudes.
Happily for mankind, however, the beams of fortune
dazzle their sight, intoxicate their senses, and stimu
late them to the commission of extravagant follies,
by which they lose at one blow all the advantages
they have gradually gained by long and hard labour
and intrigues. Thus it happened with them also in
Russia. Filled with pride at the victory they had
obtained over their foes, and at the favour and con
fidence reposed in them by the Emperor Alexan
der, they began to set at nought the laws of the
land, which strictly prohibit proselytism and con
version from the established religion of the empire.
They soon threw out their nets with increasing impu
dence also among the votaries of the Greek church,
whose children they frequently kidnapped for the
salvation of their young souls, but also to the dis
tress of the parents and indignation of the previous
Government, while they had confined these baneful
operations to the Jewish and Protestant inhabitants
alone.
24 THEY SUCCEED IN CONVERTING PUPILS.
The want of proper teachers and tutors, which was
then felt in Russia in a far higher degree than at
present, had induced several distinguished families in
the empire to intrust the Loyolites with the educa
tion of their children. So long as their schools stood
under the immediate control of the state, the Jesuits
thought it too dangerous to extend their conversion
plans beyond the limits of the law. No sooner, how
ever, had Government confided to them the authority
over the schools, and reserved for itself only the
superintendence of the Polozk university, than the
pious fathers believed that the time had arrived when
they might dispense with reserve and moderation.
A great number of Greco-Catholic pupils in their
schools soon became converts to the Roman Catholic
Church ; and through the children the Jesuits found
an easy way to the hearts of the mothers and other
female relatives. The operations of conversion were
carried on with such impudence and success among
the higher circles, that even several ladies of rank,
attached to the court, had secretly embraced the
Roman Catholic religion against the will of their
families. Not satisfied with these illegal proceedings,
the "fathers" believed they might also engage with im-
THE CONVERSION OF PRINCE GALITZIN. 25
punityin a warfare against the British Bible Society,
which Alexander had encouraged throughout Russia
with so much zeal and religious enthusiasm. The
Loyolites saw in this Anglican propaganda a very
dangerous rival, which they tried to combat and sup
press by any means in their power. Even the en
treaties, nay, the threats of the minister Galitzin,
were unable to restrain them in their outrageous
attacks upon that favourite society of the emperor,,
to which step they were in some measure encouraged
by the formal and universal restoration of the order
by Pius VII., which modified to a great extent the
Russian character which the order had hitherto
borne in the empire. As it now stood under the
direct authority of Rome, that of the czar was na
turally brought in question, and the Loyolites no
longer considered themselves citizens of Russia.
Two circumstances in particular accelerated the ca
tastrophe in the political drama of the order in that
empire. Prince Alexander Galitzin, nephew of the
afore-mentioned minister, after having visited for
two years the college of the pious fathers at St.
Petersburg, openly declared, in 1814, his conversion
to the Roman Catholic church, a circumstance
c
26 CONVERSION AND FATAL END OF A PRINCESS.
which excited the more attention, as he had, until
that period, been notorious for his fanatical attach
ment to the established church of the country.
Although he was at once removed from the college,
and installed among the pages at court, he clung to
his new religion with all the devotion of an orthodox
Catholic, and was even once seen clad in the dress of
a penitent monk, with curious amulets hung round
his neck, and a scourging girdle round his body.
It was long, before the Archbishop Philarethes
succeeded in bringing him back to the religion of
his family. While the above event was still the talk
of the town, another intrigue of a similar character
plunged one of the first families in the empire into
the deepest mourning. A charming young princess
had been by her parents confided to the instruction
of a disciple of Loyola, who, to convert her to his
creed, continually represented to her in the most
fiendish colours the eternal torments she would have
to undergo beyond the grave as a heretic. The
poor girl, unwilling on the one hand to offend her
parents, and wishing on the other to accustom herself
in lifetime to the torments by fire, which she was
sure awaited her after death, tried to exercise herself
THEIR EXPULSION FROM THE TWO METROPOLES. 27
into endurance by scorching her body several times
a day with a hot-burning copper pan, until the re
peated agonizing pain at last threw her on a sick
bed, from which she never rose.
These facts induced the Emperor Alexander as soon
as he was informed of them, to comply at least partially
with the urgent requests of Galitzin and the whole of
the Greek and Protestant clergy. He issued (January,
1816) an imperial ukase by which the Jesuit College
at St. Petersburg was dissolved, and the members of
the order banished from the two metropoles (Moscow
and St. Petersburg) of the empire. It was a heavy
blow for the order, no less than the holy father, to be
scorned by the very monarch who was then considered
to be the representative of traditional legitimacy
throughout Europe, who, after the example of his pre
decessor, had protected the order with almost paternal
care, and in whose dominions the Loyolites had found
a cheerful home for nearly half a century. Alexander
undisguisedly declared in the afore-named ukase that
" he had earned but indifferent thanks from the order
upon whom he and his ancestors had lavished so many
favours, and that he had great reason to complain of
the intrigues of the members to destroy the peace of
c 2
28 INTERVIEW WITH THE GRAND-DUKE CONSTANTINE.
the country, &c. &c." It may easily be imagined, that
the pope and the order left no means untried to induce
the czar to revoke the ukase. Alexander, however,
remained inexorable.
Soon after the banishment of the Jesuits from the
two metropoles of Russia, two of the worthy members
arrived at Warsaw, for the purpose of requesting the
Grand-Duke Constantine to allow them to establish a
college in the Polish capital. Not venturing, how
ever, to make such a bold request after their recent
expulsion from the Russian capitals, they began
by asking the favour of an audience from the grand-
duke, naming for its object the permission for them
selves and a few of their exiled brethren to take up
their residence at Warsaw during the cold winter
season. The readiness with which Constantine
granted them their reasonable simple request during
their interview with him, encouraged the fathers to
enter into the details of their sufferings, and as the
grand-duke seemed to listen to them with interest
and sympathy, they had the imprudence or rather im
pudence to take chairs and sit down at the side of
Constantine without his having bid them to do so.
In the heat of their gesticulation, they gradually
THEIR IMPUDENT BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS HIM. 29
approached so near the grand-duke as frequently
to touch his arm. The latter felt so annoyed
at the familiarity, that he rose and called for his
carriage. The two fathers, however, far from taking
the hint, actually followed him to the very steps of the
carriage, and were about to enter it after Constantine
had taken his seat, when the latter, losing all patience,
said to them : " Now I am truly sick of it ; you have
just shown me, my good fathers, the manner in which
your order is accustomed to abuse the least favour
held out to them. Within one single hour you have
become, from timid petitioners, impudent claimants,
not even allowing me the free use of my own time and
carriage. I now limit your abode at Warsaw to only
fourteen days." The anecdote was told by the grand-
duke himself to the French ambassador, the Duke of
Richelieu, and it certainly speaks volumes of the
spirit that pervades the order. That Alexander did
not visit them with the whole extent of his wrath, and
banish them from the whole of his empire, instead of
only the two metropoles, was no doubt owing to the
fear he entertained lest they might reveal some un
pleasant family secrets in which the heads of the
order at least were initiated by their familiar inter-
30 THE JESUITS EXTEND THEIR WORK OF PROSELYTISM.
course with the courts of Catherine II. and Paul I.
Among the papers of Gruber (predecessor of Ber-
zozowski) were found, the czar knew it well, letters
from his father, Emperor Paul, which were calculated
highly to compromise himself and the whole house of
Romanow. Neither were the fathers ignorant of the
moral hold they had on the emperor, since they con
tinued their labours of proselytisrn with unabated
energy even after that partial expulsion from the
metropoles, when the order still counted (1816)
674 members in the various parts of Russia. Alex
ander, though fully informed of the fact, still thought
it proper to shut his eyes to their doings, and this
show of leniency emboldened the fathers to extend
their work of proselytism unreservedly and not with
out success even among the military circles of the
empire. This fear of tell-tale exposure, explains also
why Alexander would not listen to the urgent request
of Berzozowski, and allow him to leave Russia and fix
his abode at Rome, at the solemn and repeated invi
tation of the pope. He remained almost a prisoner
at Polozk to the end of his life, to the 5th February,
1820.
Since their partial expulsion from Russia, vindic-
THEIR EXPULSION FROM THE WHOLE OF RUSSIA. 31
tiveness prompted the fathers to excite even the
Chinese against the czar, and it was indeed chiefly
owing to their influence, that some of the learned tra
vellers who had been sent by the Russian government
on a scientific mission to China were not allowed to
remain at Peking. Some time before the death of
Berzozowski, Alexander was authentically informed of
the existence of a conspiracy by the order , having for
its object nothing less than the restoration of the
independence of Poland and the elevation npon its
throne of a scion of the old Poniatowsky family. They
had gained a great number of partisans to the cause at
St. Petersburg, Moscow, Smolensk, Wovonesch, Arch
angel, and even at Cherson in the Caucasus. Alex
ander waited, however, patiently, until the death of
Berzozowski (which the Jesuits alleged was not
natural) before he ordered the total and eternal ex
pulsion of the Loyolites from the Russian empire.
This was done by an ukase of the 20th March, 1820.
Apprehending a rise in their behalf by the peasantry
of their localities, military divisions were dispatched
thither to watch and hasten their departure. The
university at Polozk, and all the other schools and
colleges of the order were abolished, and the pupils
32 REASONS ASSIGNED FOR THEIR EXPULSION.
transferred partly to the episcopal seminaries and partly
to the university at Wilna. The territorial possessions
or domains of the order were sequestrated by the
crown, and the revenue applied for the benefit of the
Roman Catholic churches in Russia. The pious
fathers were brought at the expense of government
under escort to the frontier of the empire, where each
received from thirty to fifty ducats travelling expenses.
Most of them repaired to Rome, Vienna, or Galicia,
where they met with hospitable receptions.
The reasons assigned in the ukase for the total ex
pulsion of the Jesuits were : their love of intrigues,
proselytism, meddling in family affairs, and seduction
of the feeble sex. Of the discovered conspiracy,
however, not a word was mentioned; the Russian
government generally does not like to talk loudly of
even the possible existence of such phenomena, and
events of such character are usually suppressed se
cretly, and without the process of judicial formalities.
To the above assigned reasons, which are in them
selves of sufficient force, another was added in the
official report of the minister Galitzin. It says,
" that the Loy elites, who profess to educate the
whole human race, have nevertheless left their own
THE EMPEROR IS CONVINCED OF THEIR BASENESS. 33
serfs, amounting to more than 22,000 souls, in the
greatest ignorance possible, as also in the most
wretched state of physical misery. During his
travels through the interior, the emperor has had
numerous opportunities to convince himself of the
fact. He had met on the high roads numbers of
those individuals, who, having by physical sufferings
become unfit for hard bodily labour, were cast as
beggars upon society, provided with certificates to
that effect from their masters, the Jesuits. The em
peror," the report continues, " had frequently spoken
on the subject to the pater- general, and observed
that it seemed to him incompatible with the doc
trines of Christianity, to throw upon public charity
wretched serfs, and more especially when those who
have caused their ruin have ample means in hand
to provide for their bare existence." The report, or
act of accusation, concludes with the general obser
vation : "All actions of the Jesuits have no other
motive than that of their own benefit, and no other
object than the unlimited aggrandizement of their
power, while they have no equals in the skill of dis
covering a plausible excuse or authority for any of
their meanest actions, in the statutes of their order."
c3
31 THE ORDER IN SPAIN.
RESTORATION OF THE ORDER IN SPAIN
IN 1815, AND ITS EXPULSION IN 1835.
BY a peculiar coincidence,, in the same year that the
Loyolites were expelled from one extreme part of
Europe, they met with the same fate in also the
opposite extreme part of Europe. Already in 1799,
King Charles IV. had recalled to his dominions the
surviving members of the order whom his father had
banished thence. But as the popular feeling of the
nation was against their presence, the king was
obliged, after the lapse of a few years, to rebanish
them from Spain. An attempt by Berzozowski, in
1812, to induce the Cortes to their recall, equally
failed. No sooner, however, had Ferdinand VII.
ascended the throne, than he thought proper to re-
invite the Jesuits, and more especially as the pope
had about the same time restored the order through
out Catholic Christendom. Like many of his brethren
by the grace of God, he was of opinion that the sons
of St. Ignatius were the best pillars of thrones, and
that they were unparalleled in the art of quieting the
FERDINAND VII. RE-INTRODUCES THE JESUITS. 35
consciences of monarehs who did not find it to their
interest to keep their solemn promises made in time
of need to their subjects. Indeed, the warm recom
mendations and urgent solicitations addressed by the
pope to Ferdinand, in favour of the Jesuits, seemed
quite superfluous, as regarded the personal feelings
of the king, though they greatly assisted to render
harmless the opposition he had met with by the high
Council of Castilia on that point. Despite the almost
unanimous opposition of the Council, Ferdinand issued
(29th May, 1815) a decree for the re-establishment of
the order throughout Spain, and the restoration to
its members of all their previous domains, which had
not been disposed of. Emanuel Zuniga (provincial
of Sicily), who had been deputed from Rome to regu
late the relations of the order in Spain, was received
at Madrid, where he had arrived in company of
fathers Ossuna and De Silva, with great popular de
monstrations of joy and satisfaction, and even the old
rivals of the Jesuits, the Dominican and Franciscan
monks, showed their satisfaction by accompanying
the new comers in solemn procession to the capital.
At the invitation of Zuniga, 115 grey-headed Spanish
Jesuits soon made their appearance in the metro-
36 THE JESUITS ARE FAVOURED BY THE PEOPLE.
polls, to whom was transferred, by order of the
monarch (29th March, 1816), the royal college at
Madrid, with all its estates and revenues. The col
lege instruction commenced on the same evening
with an introductory lecture by the professor of
mathematics, who opened his discourse by remarking
that " all the evils that had befallen Europe for the last
thirty years are solely the results of the extravagant
notions of enlightenment and education propagated in
the last century, and calculated to mislead men to re
bellion and impiety. I therefore propose to teach only
arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, as the lecturing
on the higher branches of mathematics might seduce
pupils into materialism and atheism." .... Aware of
the high opinion entertained by the monarch of the
loyalty, utility, and powers of the Jesuits, and the
great hold they had upon him, the whole population,
as if with a simultaneous consent, conceived all of a
sudden a great liking for the order. Twenty-five of
the most prominent towns of Spain petitioned in the
most vehement manner the monarch to favour them
with the godly men. At Barcelona, Valencia, Cadiz,
Sevilla, and Tortosa, public festivities were held at
the reception of the joyous tidings, that the monarch
SPANISH YOUTH INDUCED TO ENTER THE ORDER. 37
had complied with their request, while at Navarre
and Guipuzcoa the arrival of the Jesuits was solem
nized as a national holiday. Already, towards the
close of the year 1815, the order possessed in Spain
.ten colleges, while the continual demand for new in
stitutions rendered it necessary to renovate the old
superannuated stock by new Jesuit-recruits. To in
duce the Spanish youth to enter the order, a very
mild, almost loose discipline was introduced in the
noviciates, in direct opposition to the rigorous statutes
of the order. Instead of accustoming the young men
to abstinence and labour, the profuse luxuries of their
table could compete with any princely in the king
dom, while the permission they so easily obtained of
retiring for days and weeks to the country-seats be
longing to the order, naturally encouraged them to
indulgence in all sorts of excesses and debauchery.
In return for the services rendered to them by
Ferdinand VII. and his people, the Jesuits have done
their best to render the reign of that prince one of the
most execrable, and the condition of his people one of
the most wretched and deplorable on earth. They
were the soul, the invisible movers of that Camarilla
whose low intrigues and abominable manoeuvres con-
38 THE REVERSES OF THE JESUITS IN SPAIN.
verted within a few years the majority of the servile
adorers of Ferdinand into his bitterest enemies, and
who forced him in the end, to sanction and accept the
constitution of 1812. Neither did the Loy elites fare
much better under the revolutionary agitations. The
re-established Cortes (1820) re-abolished the order,
and applied its revenues and domains to the benefit of
the public treasury. Each of the old Jesuits who had
come over from Italy received a pension of 300
ducats so long as he remained in the country, but
they were obliged to lay aside the costume of the
order, and officiate as lay-priests under the jurisdiction
of the local bishops. The novices were all restored to
their friends and relations, while those who had
actually entered the order remained under the same
category as the old members, with the only exception
that the amount of their pension was rather smaller:
The reverses of the Jesuits in Spain were however
of very short duration. Assisted by the arms of
France, Ferdinand recovered his unlimited sove
reignty, and with it re-introduced the order in Spain
(1824), restored to the members their privileges and
property, and extended even much farther their con
trol and authority over the institutions of national in-
THEY VASTLY INCREASE IN NUMBER. 39
struction. Even in the new military school, founded
at Segovia in 1825, the professors of theology, history,
politics, and geography belonged to the Jesuit order,
while father Gil received even the appointment of
president of the royal Ordnance-college of the same
place. Besides many other grants and privileges,
Ferdinand entrusted them also with the civil admi
nistration of the country, and did in fact hardly any
thing of importance without consulting his beloved
fathers. No wonder, that under such extraordinary
favours the number of the members had increased
from 397 in 1820, to 900 in 1826. The order be
came moreover the wealthiest class in the whole
kingdom, and there was hardly a family of rank and
distinction in which a Jesuit did not officiate as
chaplain or confessor. The Jesuits now began to re
claim the restitution of their domains in Spain,
which had been sequestrated and disposed of to pri
vate individuals some fifty years ago. They refused
to refund even a part of the purchase-money, and
went to law with the holders, who in most cases were
even condemned to pay the costs of the suit. The
enormous wealth of the order about that time may
be gathered from the fact, that they bought for ready
40 THE PART THEY TOOK IN THE CIVIL WAR.
cash from Government the domains of their old foes,
the Franciscans, for 20,000,000 piastres (4,000,0007.);
and still more remarkable is the reply of the provin
cial of the Jesuits to one of his old lay friends,
who wondered at the large amount : the order, he re
plied, was resolved to be possessed of those domains,
and would have paid down even double the amount,
had Government insisted upon the figure.
In the civil war which ensued after the death of
Ferdinand VII. (1833), the Jesuits took the part of
Don Carlos, whose sons had been educated in their
schools according to the custom of the old Spanish aris
tocracy. Pater Mariano Puyal had been entrusted
since 1824 with the education of the present pretender
to the throne, the Count Montemolin. They spared
neither money nor intrigues to procure the ascendancy
for their favourite don. The rancour of their party
spirit was so notorious, that a rumour found ready
credit among the masses, to the effect that they had
poisoned the wells of Madrid, which report caused a
most frightful popular outbreak in that place against
them. National guards, accompanied by numbers of
infuriated citizens, assembled (17th July, 1834) before
the college of the worthy fathers, with the cry of
POPULAR REVENGE; EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS. 41
" Poison, poison ! death to the Jesuits." The latter
were about to make their escape, when the bolted
gates were broken open by the people, whose rage
now knew no bounds, and more especially after having
been fired at by the besieged within the gates. The co
adjutor (Ruedas),the prefect of the seminary (Carassa),
together with twelve other members, were killed on
the spot, while some others were mutilated for life by
the loss of an ear, cheek, and other barbarous atro
cities. No injury was however done to the pupils
of the college, nor was the order formally abolished,
before July 1835, so that the surviving fathers had
more than a year s time to save and secure at least a
great portion of their wealth (estimated at 300,000,000
reales, or 3,000, OOO/.) . It was only in 1835 that a
royal decree appeared ordering the banishment of
the Jesuits, the abolition of their college and other
establishments, and the sale of their property for
the public exchequer. The Jesuits of Spanish descent,
however, were permitted to remain in the country,
Government allowing to each of them five reales (one
shilling) per diem. Many of the latter made their
way to the northern provinces, which still adhered
to Don Carlos. After these provinces were however,
42 INTRODUCTION OF THE ORDER IN PORTUGAL.
in 1839, brought under the authority of the consti
tutional queen (Maria Christina), the Jesuits were
obliged to leave Spain altogether, though they sub
sequently found means of returning to their old
haunts, under the secret protection of the petticoat -
government. Thirteen Jesuits retook possession of
their college at Cordova in 1844, while more than a
hundred members of the order are still found scat
tered about in various parts of the kingdom.
INTRODUCTION OF THE ORDER IN POR
TUGAL BY DOM MIGUEL IN 1829; ITS
EXPULSION BY DOM PEDRO IN 1834.
*
Or far shorter duration was the restoration of the
order in the neighbouring PortugaL We have men
tioned above, that King John VI. had addressed a
very energetic protest to the pope in 1815, against
the admission of the Jesuits in his dominions ; to this
view he adhered to the last, and would have nothing
to do with the pious fathers. It was only his son,
DOM MIGUEL FAVOURS THEIR RETURN. 43
Dom Miguel, who resolved (10th July, 1829) to open
the country to the disciples of St. Ignatius " for the
advancement of the welfare of his dear subjects/ as
he alleged. In the decree for their admission, he
however plainly stipulated, that neither the pro
perty nor the privileges which they previously pos
sessed in Portugal should ever be restored to them
on their return to the country. The fathers on
their arrival at Lisbon (29th August, 1829) were
but sparingly provided with pecuniary means by
Dom Miguel, owing to the sad state of his own
finances, and it was only in December, 1830, that
their old institution at St. Antonio, in the capital,
was restored to them by Government, while more
than another year elapsed before they received back,
at the intercession of Bonaventura, Archbishop of
Evora their old famous college at Coimbra (9th Jan.,
1832). The first pupils therein were the three sons
of the Countess Oliveira (granddaughter of the great
Pombal !). The Jesuits were however not long in the
enjoyment of these possessions. No sooner had Dom
Pedro expelled from the throne the usurper, than he
hastened to banish from Portugal Miguel s protegees,
the pious fathers. The decree of their banishment
44 THE JESUITS LEAVE PORTUGAL FOR EVER.
was dated (24th May, 1834) nine days after the de
cisive battle of Asseceira, and only two days before
the treaty of Evora, by which Dom Miguel resigned
the throne of Portugal for ever. The decree proved
fatal to the Jesuits. At Coimbra they were arrested,
and like culprits dragged from prison to prison,
until they were lodged in the horrible tower of
St. Julien, from which they were however soon re
leased by the intercession of the French ambassa
dor, Baron Mortier, who claimed them as his
countrymen. They then left Portugal for ever, as
they said, most of them turning to Italy, and parti
cularly to Rome and Naples.
PIUS VII. GREATLY FAVOURS THE ORDER. 45
THE ORDER IN THE PAPAL STATES.
INTERNAL SQUABBLES.
Pater-General Roothaan.
THE eternal city has only since the death of Ber-
zozowski become the focus of the " order of Jesus."
In later times, we have mentioned above, the Emperor
Alexander would not allow Berzozowski, the general
of the order, to quit Polozk, and take up his resi
dence at Rome; by this means Polozk had re
mained until the death of the general the real seat of
the government of the order. The death of Ber-
zozowski (1820) forms an epoch in the annals of
the order. Pius VII. had lavished his favours upon
the order ever since its restoration in 1814. On the
same day of its repristination, he also restored to the
order the three palaces which they formerly possessed
at Rome, and endowed moreover very richly in the
following years their new colleges at Viterbo, Urbino,
Orvieto, Ferrara, Terni, Tivoli, Fano, Ferentino, and
Benevento. The immense progress which the Jesuits
had since made throughout Italy, had greatly excited
46 THE ELECTION OF A NEW GENERAL DELAYED.
the jealousy not only of all the other orders, but also
of a considerable number of the lay-priesthood at large.
After the death of Berzozowski, the opponent orders
united their efforts to suppress the Jesuits, or at
least to lessen their influence with the pope.
They found powerful allies in the ambitious "father"
Mariano Petrucci (rector of the noviciate at Genoa,
and temporary vicar-general of the order),, as also in
the Cardinal della Genga. It is to this day not
clearly understood, what the motives of the cardinal
might have been to act as an opponent to the
Jesuits, since it was well known that he belonged to
the Zelanti, or the orthodox party, who were always
in favour of the order. Be this however as it may,
it is a fact, that having been appointed by Pius VII.
papal vicar, or head of the ecclesiastical administra
tion at Rome, he put all sorts of obstacles in the way
of the clerical chapter- general, who had assembled
for the election of a new general for the order, in the
place of Berzozowski deceased. He found a great
supporter in Petrucci, who expected to become gene
ral of the order by the peremptory and direct autho
rity of the pope, who might have used that prero
gative in order to make an end to the protracted
DISMISSAL OF PETRUCCI FROM THE CHAPTER. 47
interregnum. Petmcci and Delia Genga would pro
bably have carried their point, or the pope, disgusted
perhaps at the split in the camp, would have thought
proper to allow the order to fall into decay, had it
not found a warm protector in Cardinal Consalvi,
secretary of state. The latter, though by no means
a friend of the order, was however induced to take it
under his protection, out of spite to Delia Genga, an
old enemy of his, whose plans he was glad to have an
opportunity of thwarting. He effected a papal de
cree (3rd October, 1820) abolishing the vicarage-
general and ordering the speedy election of a general
for the order. After considerable delay on the part
of the opponents, in which the pope was again obliged
to interfere by a second decree, the chapter at last
met for the purpose of election. But Petrucci, the
president of the chapter, having found fault with the
written powers presented by the deputies of England,
France, and Italy, which were as he said irregular,
and not in due form, objected to the admission of
those deputies as competent electors. He was how
ever outvoted on that point, and as he still protested
against the decision, and even threatened to appeal
to another tribunal, the chapter dismissed him from
48 PATER LUIGI FORTIS IS ELECTED GENERAL.
his post as president. The election now proceeded
without interruption, and on the 18th December,
1820, Father Luigi Fortis (aged seventy-two years)
was elected general of the order. Petrucci, who was
tried before a commission, was found guilty, but
having shown great penitence, he escaped punishment,
while his accomplices were expelled for ever from the
society.
Pius VII. having died (20th August, 1823), Car
dinal della Genga ascended the holy chair of St.
Peter (28th September, 1823) under the name of
pope Leo XII. It was fully expected that he would
now take his revenge, and suppress, or at least inflict
injuries upon the order; neither did the Jesuits
themselves anticipate much less, from his well known
vindictive character. They were however agreeably
mistaken ; no sooner had he entered upon his ponti
ficate, than he evinced the most benevolent feelings
towards the order. In January, 1824, he made over
to the members the college Romano, the oratory del
Caravita, the Gregorian observatory, as also all the
other institutions founded by them previous to the
dissolution of the order in 1773, the restoration
of which having been hitherto refused to them.
FRESH FAVOURS GRANTED BY THE NEW POPE. 49
The college Romano, which was opened in November,
1824, remained until very recently an ecclesiastical
university, while the Caravita oratory, or church, was
devoted to nocturnal missions, i. e., the Jesuits held
there nocturnal sermons and religious exercises; they
also confessed there lay-people and granted absolu
tion in the hours of night. Leo XII. subsequently
also assigned to them the old Jesuit college in his
native place, Spoleto, as also the Borromi palace,
which had originally been built by the Jesuits, and
was of an enormous size. After the dissolution of
the order in 1773 it had been let to private families.
In 1826 it was occupied by about forty families,
exclusive of the numerous shops and magazines on
the ground floor. All these tenants and occupiers
were now suddenly ejected by the Jesuits, who took
possession of the building, and separated it by a wall
from the adjoining edifices.
The result of the extraordinary favour shown by
Leo XII. to the Jesuits was that, at his death (10th
February, 1829), their number had so increased at
Rome, that there were not institutions in sufficient
number to hold them all. A new settlement was in
consequence prepared for them without the precincts
50 ELECTION OF ROOTHAAN AS GENERAL.
of the city. After the death of their general,, Forbes,
(fourteen days after that of the pope,) the Jesuits expe
rienced new vexations from the other orders at the
election of his successor, but were soon released from
their difficulties by the energetic interposition of Car
dinals Pacca and Gregorio, who, themselves rivals for
the Tiara, gave, nevertheless, their votes in the con
clave in favour of their colleague, Castiglioni, after
having obtained from him the solemn promise that
he would without delay decree the election of a new
general for the order. No sooner had he ascended
the holy chair (as pope Pius VIII.) than he ordered
the immediate convocation of the chapter for the
speedy election of a general for the order. The
chapter met at Rome on the 20th June, 1829; and
after ten days deliberation, the election fell on father
Roothaan.
With the exception of Aquaviva (died 1615), the
order did not possess for its chief a man so young
in years, and yet so endowed with various acquire
ments and possessing such pre-eminent talents as
did Roothaan, who is to this day (we believe) the
prapositus generalis of the order. He was born at
Amsterdam on the 20th November, 1785, and served
HIS CAREER AND ABILITIES. 51
for some time as clerk to Myaheer Mos, a tobacco
manufacturer of that place. At the age of nineteen, he
entered (1804) the college of the Jesuits at Palozk,
where he displayed considerable tact, talent, and ac
tivity. At forty-five, he was elected general of the
order, and was not unjustly called the greatest poli
tical head and the most skilful pilot to whom the
vessel of the society of Jesus was ever confided. The
general opinion at Home was, that Heaven deigned to
signify its approval of his election by a miracle. On
the ninth day after his election (18th July) a frightful
storm had broken over the eternal city at the moment
when eighty of the disciples of Jesus were assembled
for prayer at the chapel of St. Louis Gonzaga. The
lightning entered at two points of the chapel and
passed through the midst of the praying monks with
out inflicting the least injury to any. " A miracle a
miracle! " shouted the assembly, in which cry the pious
fathers of course joined with heart and soul. Though
it cannot be denied, that the successful schemes of
the Jesuits were at that period greatly promoted by
the spirit of the age, by a general re-action in favour
of religious fanaticism, with which even the most
enlightened courts of Europe seemed affected, it
D2
52 GREGORY XVI. AND ROOTHAAN.
must be admitted on the other hand, that Roothaan s
distinguished talents had not a little contributed to
the success of the order. He was, properly speaking,
not only the leader of his own order, but virtually the
moving spirit and absolute ruler of the whole ecclesi
astical administration within the dominions of the
pope, and even of the Vatican itself. Hence the
lamentable condition in which the succeeding pope
had found at his accession the affairs of his country
and his people, Father Roothaan having turned every
available interest and resource of the state not only
to the sole advantage of his order, but also to the
great injury and neglect of the moral and material
welfare of the country generally. Thus it happened,
that during his absolute power, even the erection of
railways, for instance, was wholly out of question in
the papal states, as he was bent to keep the in
creasing masses of the citizen-beggars more and
more dependant on the support of the wealthy order
of Jesus. Gregory XVI., who succeeded (2nd Feb
ruary, 1831) pope Pius VIII., was a mere puppet in
the hands of Roothaan, and did all he could, soon
after his accession, to benefit the Jesuits, even to
indemnify them for the losses they had sustained at
THE OLD COLLEGES RESTORED TO THE JESUITS. 53
the hands of the insurgents in Italy soon after the
July revolution in France.
The insurgents had stormed their colleges at
Spoleto, Fano, Forli, Ferrara, and other places, and
forced the fathers to save themselves by flight ; and
though tranquillity was soon restored by the inter
vention of the Austrian troops, much damage had
been done to the buildings and their contents.
One of the first decrees of the new pope consisted
in a provision of quite a novel character ; it invited
all the monks of whatever order living at Rome to
accustom themselves to the pious and ascetic exer-i
cises adopted by the Jesuits. The Jesuit-church was
chosen for the theatre of, and father Finetti as the
instructor in, those exercises. Soon afterwards (2nd
October, 1831) Gregory XVI. issued an edict, by
which the whole system of education adopted in all
the schools throughout the papal states, including
the two chief secular universities, at Bologna and
Sapienza at Rome, was to be reformed in the true
spirit of the Loyolites, while five years afterwards
(1836), the same pope likewise entrusted them with
the exclusive management of the famous college of the
Propaganda. Still later, he restored to them the
54 NEW SAINTS GRANTED TO THE ORDER.
Loretto and Illyrian colleges, which had been under
their control before 1773.
In addition, pope Gregory granted to the order a
boon of a spiritual character, that of beatising a great
number of the members. A beatification (i. e., the
pope raising the individual into the rank of the lower
nobility in heaven) is fraught with heavy expenses ;
it costs about 25,000 dollars, while a canonisation
(i. e. } the advancement to the rank of the highest
aristocracy in heaven) costs several hundred thou
sands of dollars, as it entitles the individual to the
dedication of altars and churches on earth to his
memory. And though the revenues accruing to the
papal exchequer from these sources are very con
siderable, yet were the popes usually very sparing
and economical in the granting of those celestial pri
vileges, probably not to depreciate the articles in the
terrestrial market. It was therefore a great favour
which the pope showed to the Jesuits, by granting
them as many blessed saints as they were able and
willing to pay for.
THE ORDER IN THE TWO SICILIES AND SARDINIA. 55
THE ORDER IN THE TWO SICILIES
AND SARDINIA.
WE have mentioned in the foregoing pages that the
Loyolites, after their banishment from Portugal, had
made their way chiefly to Rome and Naples, two
places where their order was mostly cherished and
held in high esteem. We also know, that they stood
in very high favour with Ferdinand IV. (since 1816
Ferdinand I.), even before the universal restoration of
the order by Pius VII. No sooner had Ferdinand
re-entered Naples, than he fetched from Sicily his
beloved Loyolites, to whom he restored their old
college with all its estates, and entrusting them, more
over, with the almost exclusive education of the
nation at large. His successor, Francis I. (1st January,
1825), generally acted up to the principles of his
father, and created even a new Jesuit college at his
own expense, for the exclusive education of the young
nobility. Such of the pupils who had distinguished
themselves in religion and literature were subse
quently taken in special favour by King Ferdinand
II. (November, 1830), during whose reign both
56 THEIR SUCCESS IN NAPLES AND SARDINIA.
the influence and settlements of the Jesuits had in
creased to an enormous extent. In the kingdom of
Naples they possessed in 1844, besides the above
colleges in the capital,, also some at Aquila, Lecce,
Maglie, Salerno, and Sorrento; and in Sicily, at
Palermo, Caltanisetta, Alcamo, Trapani, Marsala,
Monte Albano, Modica, Mazzara, Roto, Salemi, and
Termini.
In the second kingdom of the Peninsula, at Sar
dinia, the Loyolites acquired a still more brilliant
position. King Victor Emanuel, whose patrimony,
in addition to the late republic of Genoa, had been
restored to him by an act of the Congress of Vienna,
had by a long series of misfortunes imbibed on the
one hand a deep hatred against the innovations of the
present age, and an enthusiastic love for the good
olden times with all their traditions and institutions
on the other. He played somewhat the part of a Don
Quixote in all matters touching legitimacy, and caused
even the exotic plants reared in the botanical garden
by the French savans, to be torn out and destroyed
as Jacobine noxious weeds. No wonder, then, that
he took the first opportunity, after the restoration of
the order in 1814, to recall to his dominions the
REVENUE TRANSFERRED TO THE JESUITS. 57
members of the order, " the pious sons of St. Ignatius,
the strong pillars of the throne and altar."* Already,
in 1815, they had opened at Turin their previous col
lege, and the same they did in the following year
(1 816) at Genoa. The king went so far in his partiality
for them, that he compelled the university of Genoa
to restore to them the domain, which government
had, after the dissolution of the order in 1773, trans
ferred to that university, the annual income of which
amounted to about 4000. This violent act of gross
partiality no doubt greatly contributed to alienate
from him the hearts of the Genoese. The seat of the
Muses faded away in the flower of its existence, while
the indemnifications promised by the monarch for the
withdrawal of those revenues, were never fulfilled. De
spite, however, the unpleasant feelings created thereby
in the minds of the people against the Loyolites, the
latter succeeded in accumulating in the capital of
Liguria, a considerable sum of money. The inha
bitants and noble families, from fear of their power,
* One of liis ancestors, King Victor Amadeus, (died 1732,)
had a far different opinion of the Jesuits. He being asked
one day, why the Jesuits did not sing high mass, after the
custom of the other orders of the Catholic church " Birds
of prey," replied he, " never sing." ZsckoJcJce, p. 283.
D 3
58 WEALTH AND INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS.
not only offered no resistance whatever to the opera
tions of the Jesuits, but even tried to ingratiate them
selves with them by rich legacies and charitable con
tributions, which latter they delivered into the hands
of the Jesuits for discretionary distribution among the
poor, and the greatest part of which no doubt went
into the coffers of the Jesuit Exchequer. Within a
short time, the fathers at Genoa were enabled to pur
chase a magnificent country seat at Montebello (in the
province Tortona), though they still went begging from
house to house for charitable contributions to their
poor institution, which few had the courage to refuse,
while others agreed to contribute a certain sum per
month, amounting in all to upwards of 12,0001ireayear.
The success and spread of the Jesuits under Victor
Emanuel and his two successors, were so extensive
that there was hardly a place in Sardinia where the
order had not colleges and other institutions of its
own, as also the almost unlimited control over all
other secular establishments for national education.
Its treasury, too, had increased almost daily,
by numerous legacies from pious laymen, among
which we may mention the sum of 500,000 lire be
queathed by Count Boigne (1822) for the foundation
RESIGNATION OF VICTOR EMANUEL. 59
and endowment of their college at Chambery. Not
satisfied, however, with thrusting the hard earnings of
the poor people into the pockets of the sons of St.
Ignatius, Victor Emanuel did not scruple to extend
their influence over the educational department, and
gradually also over the civil administration of the poor
country. Queen Theresa and her confessor, the
Jesuit Botta, were the actual rulers of the land. From
them emanated the tyrannical decrees which caused a
popular outbreak in 1821, and forced the old monarch
to resign in favour of his brother Charles Felix. The
latter proved even more bigoted and partial to the
Loyolites than his brother; he frequently went through
the pious discipline and exercises of the order, not
despising even to wear the robe courte, the apparel of
the order. Father John Grassi became his confessor,
and it was with this monk that the pater-general,
Roothaan, at that time superior of the college at Turin,
shared the control over the conscience of the monarch
and his court. The first use these two godly men
made of their absolute power consisted in the abolition
(1821) of the so-called old college delle Provincie,
which had been founded in 1729 by Victor Amadeus,
in connection with the university at Turin, that col-
60 THE JESUITS RECEIVE CONTROL OVER EDUCATION.
lege having proved, they feared, a successful rival
of their own schools. It has only been restored of
late by King Charles Albert, and christened after him
(collegio Albertine) , which step gave great satisfaction
to the people, though the Jesuits decried the college
as the nursery of heresy and all sorts of vices. Like
many of his crowned brethren of our time, King Felix
laboured under the impression that the only remedy
against popular outbreaks and insurrections consisted
in withholding from the masses the light of education,
and in narrowing the sphere of their mental develop
ment. The Jesuits were therefore entrusted with
the unlimited control over the higher schools of the
kingdom, and subsequently also over the universities
of Turin and Genoa. They formed the Board of the
Riforma, or the supreme tribunal over all the colleges
and schools public and private, which were regularly
visited by the members of their commission to report
on the conduct of these establishments. By these
means they had it in their power to appoint at the
two universities teachers and professors who proved
blind instruments in their hands, and only taught
doctrines in conformity with the views entertained
by their arbiters, the Jesuits.
THEIR PROGRESS UNDER CHARLES ALBERT. 61
Also under Charles Albert, the successor of Felix
(27th April, 1831), the Sardinian state remained for
fifteen years the second Paraguay of the Jesuits.
Immediately after his accession he said to Father
Grassi : " The order has lost in the deceased monarch
a protector and father; I will endeavour to supply
both, by my love and favour " and he honestly kept
his word. Like his predecessors he honoured and
cherished the Loyolites as the strongest pillars of his
throne. He showed himself uncommonly liberal to
them, and presented them, among others, with his
splendid palace, Doria-Tursi, at Genoa, which they
soon converted into a college of their own. Nay, he
even compelled the municipal authorities of the place
to support the new institution by an annual contri
bution of 10,800 lire. Not unfrequently, he even
subordinated his royal authority to the will and in
trigues of the Jesuits to an almost incredible degree,
as was plainly seen in the case of the daughter of the
late Dutch ambassador (Heldevier) at Turin. His
only child and heiress, nineteen years old, had been
(in June, 1844) induced by the Loyolites to fly from
her father s house, become a convert to the Catholic
religion, and take the veil in one of the convents in
62 AN HEIRESS INDUCED TO TAKE THE VEIL.
that place. All the efforts of the father to recover
his child remained fruitless, and in a private audience
he had with Charles Albert, the latter expressed his
sympathy with the distressed parent, but regretted
that he could not interfere in the matter. Even the
energetic notes of Count Liedekerke, the successor of
Heldevier, assisted by the reclamations of the minis
ters of England, Prussia, and at last also of Austria,
had no other result, than that the Sardinian govern
ment declined in the most positive terms any foreign
interference in a matter not strictly belonging to their
province. The distressed father was obliged to de
part without his child. It was only when the Sar
dinian monarch thought fit to put himself at the
head of the liberal party, that the Jesuits lost power,
influence, and finally even existence, in Sardinia, as
will be seen in the sequel.
We must not omit noticing here, that the conduct
of the Loyolites in countries where they were only
endeavouring to acquire power, influence, and do
minion, or where they had still to struggle against
dangerous rivals, is far different from that in those
states where they were already sure and in quiet
possession of power. The recent history of the Je-
THE JESUITS ENGAGED AS POLICE SPIES. 63
suits in Sardinia amply illustrates that difference.
Capacities and talents, which the pious fathers
carefully try to withdraw from the public eye when
labouring under misgivings of failure or even uncer
tainty of success, shine forth in all their ostentatious
glory, as soon as they think themselves safe from
attack and competition. Thus in other countries
where their position is less secure, they would never
have dared to scorn public opinion to that extent as
they did in Sardinia, where they were officially en
gaged as police spies*
If the lay clergy, no matter where, could be aware
how oppressive the yoke is which the sons of Loyola
are trying to place upon them as soon as they (the
Loy elites) have succeeded in appropriating to them
selves the sovereign power of their locality, they would
assuredly take good care not to promote so devotedly
the wishes of the Jesuits, and allow them to settle and
gain a footing amongst them. The Sardinian clergy,
who, in that respect, merited so much of the society
of Jesus, learned at last to their horror, the great in
jury they have inflicted upon themselves by that chari
table and well-meant step. No sooner had the Jesuits
* Gioberti, IV., 361 ; V., 215.
64 INGRATITUDE OF THE JESUITS.
obtained the brilliant position at court and in the
country to which we have alluded above, than they
treated also the other clerical orders with tyran
nical cruelty that increased from year to year, The
least opposition to any of their most detestable wishes,
was visited by a punishment of the most atrocious
and vindictive character. We will cite as an instance
the case of the parochial clergy at Genoa, whom the
Jesuits had requested to adopt a form of penitence at
once novel and immoral. Having refused to comply
with the request, they were decried in and without
the country as persons given to heresy. They were
so terribly persecuted on all occasions, that they
addressed themselves to their archbishop, Cardinal
Tadini, to have their character sifted and cleared ;
the latter, however, dared not to intercede energeti
cally in their behalf.
To the particularly amiable qualities of the Loyo-
lites belongs also envy, or hostility against all cha
ritable and benevolent institutions which are not of
Jesuitical origin, or stand at least in no connection
with them. They hate such institutions, because they
look at the founders or managers as rivals in public
opinion and public merit, which they claim exclu-
THE NEWLY-FOUNDED CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 65
sively for themselves. No sooner were infant, and
ragged-schools, as also lodging-houses for beggars,
established at Turin and Genoa, and other Sardinian
towns, than the Jesuits persecuted them with all the
animosity peculiar to their character.
One of them, a certain pater Ferdinand Minini,
denounced openly from the pulpit (1838) in the
cathedral St. Ambrosio, at Genoa, these institu
tions, and even the savings-banks, and similar
other establishments of modern invention, as wicked
and sinful, alleging, among others, the circumstance
that they were first introduced in Protestant coun
tries, where they are managed and promoted by
heretics and irreligious individuals. If, concluded
the preacher, such institutions were really for the
salvation of pious Christians, they would certainly
have been introduced already by the holy apostles.
Another pious father, a certain Tibero Sagrini, pro
fessor of elocution at the college of Turin, denounced
and condemned (10th Nov. 1844) from the pulpit of
the St. Martyrs s church, in that place, the existence
of the " poor lodging houses " in that capital, as sinful
and impious. The condemnation gave rise to a cha
racteristic negotiation between the administration of
66 PROMISE BROKEN BY THE PROVINCIAL.
that charitable establishment, and the provincial of
the Jesuits, pater Antonio Bresciani. The latter,
in a conference with the directors, assured them,
that he had heard with much regret the harsh
expressions used by Sagrini, and promised most
solemnly, that the same preacher should on the
following Sunday not only recall those expressions,
but on the contrary recommend the institution to the
benevolent attention of the citizens. Sagrini was
thereupon ushered into the presence of the governors,
when he acknowledged the justice of the promise,
and his ready compliance with it. The governors of
the institution, rejoiced at the happy turn of affairs,
deputed one of their members to the provincial to
thank him for his intercession in behalf of the cha
ritable institution. Having repeated his previous
promise, he sent for Sagrini to confirm it by his own
assurance, which the latter did without reserve and
equivocation. On the following Saturday, however,
Bresciani wrote to the president, that Sagrini had
nothing to recall from any of his condemnatory ex
pressions. And as regarded the sacred promise, it
was given, Bresciani argued, confidentially, it was to
be kept a secret from the public in the interval, but
SOCIETY OF
since it had been noised abroad (probably by the
Jesuits themselves), he did not think it any longer
binding upon his conscience. The Loyolites were,
however, unsuccessful in their intriguing attempts to
destroy these institutions, and the only thing they
did accomplish was, to bring the ragged-schools at
Genoa for some time under the conduct and manage
ment of the so-called " brothers of ignorance," an
epithet given to the " brothers of Christian schools. 3
The institution was first introduced in France by the
Abbe John Baptist de la Salle, (canon of Rheims in
1679), and confirmed in 1724 by Pope Benedict XIII.
Its object was principally the instruction of the chil
dren of the lower or ignorant classes. Expelled from
France in 1790, the society had turned to Italy, and
particularly to Sardinia, where they possessed some
considerable settlements. Napoleon allowed them (in
1801) to return to France; there they had made con
siderable progress during that Emperor s reign, and
still more so during the Restoration and the July
Government. In 1825, 1400 of the ignorant brethren
or fathers occupied in France not less than 210 houses,
while in 1842, 2136 members were instructing 150,000
children. At the time when the members of the society
68 JESUITS JOIN THE "BROTHERS OF IGNORANCE."
lived in exile in Italy, a close connection seemed to
have been formed between them and the Jesuits,
who had passed by the name of fathers of faith,
who to conceal the real character of their order
passed by as many names as they could properly
assume. We know at least, that a portion of the
fathers of faith who had returned to France during
the emperor s reign, appeared there under the name
of Christian school brothers (ignorants). There ex
isted, at all events, a close alliance between the two
orders at that time, the latter forming, as it were, the
tail of the Loyolites in several states, and more espe
cially in the interior of Sardinia, where the elementary
instruction was chiefly in their hands. The above-
mentioned poor or ragged-schools at Genoa had been
founded in the beginning of the eighteenth century
by a noble-minded curate, a certain Garaventa, and
were supported by voluntary contributions collected
by the humane and philanthropic lay clergy ; and yet,
strange as it may appear, it is a fact, that the insi
nuations of the Jesuits, that attempts were made in
these schools to stifle in the breasts of the children the
love and affection for their parents, found ready cre
dence at the court of Turin, when King Charles Albert
THE ORDER IN OTHER PARTS OF ITALY. 69
ordered thereupon (in Feb. 1838) to transfer these
schools to the brothers of ignorance, endowing them at
the same time with a considerable annuity. In 1841,
however, these public schools had become so com
pletely deserted through the mismanagement of the
ignorant brothers, or brothers of ignorance, that a
number of the wealthy Genoese citizens founded at
their own cost similar schools, which they confided to
the care of competent, honest, and worthy lay-clergy.
THE ORDER IN MODENA, PARMA, AND
TUSCANY;
Its previous attempts in Lucca.
THE Loyolites possessed in the duchy of Modena
not less power and influence than they did in Sar
dinia. Thither they were invited by Francis IV. soon
after his restoration to the throne (16th Oct. 1815).
Already in 1816, he had not only restored to them
their previous college in the capital, together with all
the lands and estates attached to it, but had even
founded for them a new settlement at Reggio. The
70 DESTRUCTION OF ALL CLASSICAL WRITINGS.
two colleges soon numbered among the largest and
wealthiest which they possessed in Italy. The duke
having entrusted them exclusively with the depart
ment of public instruction, there were in each of the
establishments about 400 day pupils, besides fifty or
sixty boarders. They had, moreover, the control
over the censorship, the duke s confessor being
the president of the executive Board. In that capa
city he caused (in 1829) all private libraries to be
visited and examined, and ordered that all the works
of poets who have not written in the spirit of the
disciples of Loyola, even those of Horace, Ovid,
Lucretius, and other ancient classics, should be con
demned to the flames. But his dominion was not
confined to that department alone ; it soon extended
to the aggregate administration of the whole state,
with which the cruel and bigoted duke had entrusted
him, to the ruin of its poor inhabitants.
In the neighbouring Parma, however, the Loyolites
were not so successful. It lasted a full century
before they could get a footing there. The arch
duchess, Maria Louise, or rather the men who
governed in her name, had the merit to respect
public opinion, and refused for a long time, at
THE JESUITS ALLOWED TO SETTLE AT PARMA. 71
the request of the population, the admission of the
Jesuits into her territory. It was only in 1844,
when Austria interceded in their behalf in such a
manner, that she could and would not be denied the
request, that the relict of Napoleon was obliged to
consent to their admission. She introduced the order
(20th March) in her dominions, entrusted it with the
management of the grammar schools, and partially
also of the higher departments of education. Not
long after, various colleges made their appearance in
the three towns of the state, at Parma, Piacenza, and
Guastalla. General complaints, however, soon arose
against the very system of their instruction ; which
induced the municipal council at Piacenza to address
government (Sept. 1846), and assure it, that the
college there was about to be wholly deserted by the
students, if the management was not withdrawn from
the Jesuits, the parents of the pupils being highly
exasperated at the great depravity which prevailed in
the institution.
Tuscany, ever distinguished among the Italian states
for its wise and benevolent princes, was also spared
until recent times the evils arising from the intrigues
of the Jesuits. It was only in 1846, that the Grand
72 " SISTERS OF THE HOLY HEART OF JESUS."
Duke Leopold II., no doubt at the importunate
representations of Austria, yielded to the papal re
quest to allow the Loyolites to settle in his dominions.
He granted to only a few of them the permission to
reside at Montepulciane, but he allowed the female
Jesuits, the " sisters of the heart of Jesus," to open
a school at Pisa. Almost simultaneously with the
order of the Jesuits, was founded by Isabella Rosella,
of Barcelona, the order of the female Jesuits, which
soon spread and progressed, especially in Flanders,
and other places in the north, until pope Urban III.
thought fit to abolish it in 1631 for the many abuses
and disorders that prevailed in it. Although some
of these religious sisters were afterwards still found in
the Netherlands, at Cologne, Vienna, and other places,
the formal re-introduction of the order only took place
in the beginning of the present century by Paccanari,
and after him by pater Yarin. In honour of the (dis
solved) order of Jesus, which had for some time adopted
the emblem of " devotion to the holy heart of Jesus,"
Varin gave that name to a fen) ale congregation which
he founded at Paris. Magdalen Sophia Barat was
the first head (general) of the female society " of the
holy heart of Jesus." The chief task and endeavour
THE FEMALE JESUITS. 73
of that society is to become intrusted with the edu
cation of the young ladies among the higher classes,
in the same manner as the Jesuits try to lay hold of
the minds of young gentlemen of wealthy parents
and expectations. They stand in close connection
with the Jesuits, whose laws they have adopted since
1823, and have formed various extensive ramifica
tions, particularly in France, where, like the latter,
they are distinguished for deception, hypocrisy, ambi
tion, and intrigues.
For the influential position which the Loyolites knew
how to acquire in France during the Restoration, they
were chiefly indebted to the female members of " the
holy heart of Jesus," who belonged to the most no
table and eminent families of the kingdom. Many
favours which would never have been granted to the
male Jesuits, were willingly accorded to the female
Jesuits. The sisters of " the holy heart of Jesus "
must, by the bye, not be confounded with those of
" the good Shepherd," another branch-society of
female Jesuits equally founded in France, for the pur
pose of instructing the daughters of the lower classes,
as the former were for those of the higher classes.
The " sisters of the good Shepherd" professed, more-
74 THEY WERE REFUSED ADMISSION AT PISA,
over, to reform and reclaim girls of irregular life,
under which profession they had gained access even
in some parts of Germany, but more especially in
Bavaria, Switzerland, and Italy ; but while the c bre
thren or fathers of ignorance " formed as it were the
tail of the Jesuits, the sisters of the " holy heart of
Jesus" frequently formed, on the contrary, their
heralds and harbingers. This fact was so notorious,
that nearly all classes of society at Pisa, headed by
the Faculty of the university, protested against their
admission in such energetic terms, that their abode
there lasted but a very short period.
Also the Duchy of Lucca was happy enough to be
spared the presence of the Jesuits. It was indebted
for this advantage to the peculiar temper of its
prince, Charles Louis of Bourbon, who having on
his frequent travels in Germany become partial to the
mystic Protestantism of Jacob Bohrn, had secretly
become a convert to the creed, and was naturally no
friend of the disciples of Loyola. It is a remarkable
fact, and may not be out of place here to mention,
that the people of Lucca had always entertained the
most unconquerable antipathy against the order, in
consequence of which the Jesuits never succeeded in
AND IN FORMER TIMES AT LUCCA. 75
gaining a firm footing in that Duchy, despite their re
peated attempts ever since 1581, when the fathers or
heads of the Republic (Lucca was one, from 1450
1805) declared "that the order had already, during
the short time of its existence, shown great similarity
with the hedgehog, which draws everything to itself
wherever it is allowed to settle ; that whoever has its
members for his neighbours, is no longer master of his
own house ; and that, despite their hypocrisy, all they
think about is, to eat and drink well, and play every
where the sovereign lords." They (the heads of
the Republic) consequently opposed the plan of the
Loyolites so energetically, that the latter were obliged
to yield to circumstances, and delay the execution of
their scheme until more favourable times. These ap
peared to have arrived for them in the years 1624,
1651, and 1660, when their request to settle in the
Duchy was powerfully supported by the popes of
those times. The Republic, however, remained firm,
and would listen to no representations. To the pecu
liar remonstrance of pope Alexander VII. (February
1660), who extolled to the Republic the vast merits
of the Jesuits, especially in point of national educa
tion, the heads of the Republic replied that, " accord-
E2
76 CORRECT ESTIMATE OF THEIR CHARACTER.
ing to their belief, the order is deficient in efficient
teachers, far more so than is generally supposed.
Granted, however/ they continued, "that such is
not the case, and that the order was a Croesus in the
possession of eminent professors, it would never coun
terbalance the disadvantages which might accrue to
the Republic, by the mischievous propensity peculiar
to the Jesuits of meddling with politics." To put
a stop to all further attempts of the Jesuits, a law was
enacted at Lucca (15th November 1660), threatening
to punish as a perjurer any one of the citizens of the
Republic who should henceforth venture to agitate
the question about the admission of the members of
the order, without the consent of seven-eighths of the
members of government. How superior in political
wisdom to all Catholic, and even not few Protestant
governments of the present day, did not the govern
ments of that petty Republic show themselves already,
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ! How
far did they not exceed in the correct estimate of the
character of the Loyolites and their venomous in
fluence upon society, the so boasted far-sighted judg
ment of our present statesmen !
THE JESUITS IN LOMBARDY. 77
THE ORDER IN THE AUSTRIAN
DOMINIONS,
Under its proper name, as also of that of the
Ligorians.
IN the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, the Loyolites
succeeded but slowly in acquiring admission. Verona
was the first to see within her walls a colony of the
order. It was indebted for the boon to the bishop
Grasser, and chiefly to the very wealthy abbate Alber-
tini, who possessed a large estate in Lombardy, and
was the owner of the previous Jesuit college at Verona.
Both had for three years been unremitting in their
exertions to obviate the obstacles against the admission
of the pious fathers. Neither is it probable that they
would have succeeded in their endeavours, if Alber-
tini had not threatened the citizens to withdraw the
100,000 florins, with which he intended to endow a
Jesuit college, and rather apply the sum for a similar
purpose in some place abroad. Pater Ferari, pre
viously provincial at Naples, was appointed president
of the first Jesuit college, opened in Lombardy in
78 THEIR ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE IN AUSTRIA.
1837. A few years afterwards (1842) the fathers es
tablished colleges also at Cremona and Brescia, and
in 1844 they regained their old house at Venice. In
the metropolis of Austria, the Loyolites gained access
much sooner than in her Italian dominions. A por
tion of the Jesuits who had been expelled from Russia
by the emperor Alexander, had repaired to Vienna,
where they met with the most hospitable reception.
Already at the time of the Congress of Vienna, im
mediately after their repristination by Pius VII.,
the Loyolites endeavoured to gain access to that
monarchy. Their warmest advocate with emperor
Francis I., was the archbishop of Vienna, Count Sig-
mund Anton of Hohenwart, an old member of the
order and previously tutor of the monarch.* Despite
his generally great influence upon his former pupil,
all his efforts in favour of the Jesuits remained fruit
less. Metternich, as he had at that period (1814-1815)
* At the age of sixteen lie entered (1746) the old society of
Jesus, flourished as professor in their colleges at Gratz,
Laibach, Trieste, and Judenburg, and became shortly before
the abolition of the order by Clemens XI V., president of one
of the most important colleges in the North, at Linz. After
the abolition of the order, he was appointed tutor (1778) to
Francis, who promoted him in 1803 to the above high dignity.
EFFORTS TO PERSUADE FRANCIS TO ADMIT THEM. 79
not as yet belonged to the pious and religious ranks,
could not possibly become reconciled to an order
which had previously proved a curse to the coun
try by their mischievous schemes. In one of the
private audiences which the archbishop had of
Francis I., the former turned the conversation to his
favourite subject, the Jesuits ; but the monarch cut
him short by saying, " Let us rather talk of some
thing else."
Shortly after (10th November 1816), Francis cele
brated his fourth nuptial with Caroline Augusta,
second daughter of Maximilian Joseph I., king of
Bavaria. She had been married by the command of
Napoleon, at the age of seventeen, in June 1806, to
the present king of Wiirtemburg, at that time heir
presumptive to the throne. There having been no
personal attachment in the conventional marrriage,
they had both agreed to live separate. After the fall
of Napoleon, the princess succeeded in obtaining from
the pope a formal divorce from the prince, having
taken her oath that the marriage had never been
consummated. After her marriage with the emperor
Francis, she did her best to persuade the emperor to
comply with the pope s request, and admit the Jesuits
80 THE OEDER FOUNDED BY LIGUORI OF NAPLES.
into Austria; but, as Metternich and other states
men were energetically opposed to it, a compromise
was effected, and they were admitted under the name
Ligorians.
Alfonsa Maria, of the old aristocratic Neapolitan race
of the Liguori, whose beatification by Gregory XVI.
was mentioned in the foregoing pages, had founded
in 1752 a new spiritual order, to whom he strongly
recommended, in his famous statutes, to follow and
imitiate closely the example and virtues of Jesus
Christ (the Redeemer). He consequently enjoined
the members to teach the lower classes the word of
God, and reform their rough minds by spiritual in
struction, catechisms, pious exercises, and missions.
Pope Benedict XIV. confirmed the new order in
1749, under the name " Congregation of the most
holy Redeemer," the members having already then
styled themselves Redemptorists ; and it was his in
tention to use them as a new and vigorous order act
ing upon the lower classes for the benefit and increase
of his own power and influence among the masses.
For his merits of the Catholic Church, Liguori was
rewarded by Clemens XIII. (1762) by his elevation
to the bishopric of Saint Agate de Goti in the
LIGUORl s OPINIONS COINCIDE WITH LOYOLA S. 81
kingdom of Naples, where he also enjoyed the friend
ship of the Jesuits, there being a perfect harmony
in the aim, object, laws and statutes of the two
orders. Liguori, like Ignatius, demanded blind and
implicit obedience from the members of his order ; *
taught, that the will of the pope must be respected
and considered as the will of God ; neither was his
moral system less loose and elastic than that of
Ignatius. Liguori, too, turned ethics, religion and
morals into the most perverted systems of casuistry ;
adopted, nay, even enlarged upon the Jesuitical doc
trine Probabilism f by explaining, that one s own opi
nion is sufficient to render his action right and just,
though it may be condemned by the whole world.
At the time of the abolition of the order of Jesus in
1773, many members had therefore no nesitation to
enter the Liguori order, or the Redemptorists, which
served as an excellent substitute for the abolished
one, until the latter was again restored in 1814.
Since then the Redemptorist order was amalgamated
* Quod nikil voluntatis proprise habeant, sed tota in eorum
manu deposita qui illos gubernant. ZscJwTcTce, pp. 148, 150.
f The Jesuits only justify an action when some probable
authority may be found in its favour, though by only one
reverend father, in opposition to all others.
E3
82 THE LIGORIANS SETTLE IN VIENNA.
with, or rather absorbed in the Jesuitical, the gene
ral of the latter being recognised also as chief by the
former. It was, however, considered prudent and
political to keep, apparently, the two orders distinct
and separate, at the side of each other, as the Re-
demptorists did not, like the Jesuits, stand in so bad
repute among the people at large, and under which
milder name many of the latter really succeeded in
insinuating themselves into those countries where the
greatest reluctance had prevailed against them.
Neither were they mistaken in their speculation.
Emperor Francis I., who could not make up his mind
to brave public opinion and the counsel of his states
men, to admit the Jesuits under their real name,
was persuaded to do so under their feigned name, the
Ligorians, sincerely believing that they were two dif
ferent orders, who had nothing in common beyond
spiritual devotion and discipline. A certain Hoff*
bauer, who had entered (1781) the congregation of
the Redemptorists, and become afterwards their vicar-
general in the states beyond Italy, had in 1809
settled in Vienna, where he spared no efforts to intro
duce the order in Austria. He did not, however,
live to see the accomplishment of his wishes, he
THE PEOPLE MADE AWARE WHO THEY WERE. 83
having died 15th March 1820, five weeks before the
issue of an imperial decree, granting to the Ligorians,
or, as they best liked to style themselves, the priests
of the " congregation of the Redeemer/ the Passau
court of Vienna, together with the adjacent very old
church Maria- Stiegen. The explanation given by the
court of Vienna for that step, that the Ligorians had
been called into the metropolis for the simple purpose
of promoting the spiritual welfare of the population,
and that their sphere of operation had been strictly
limited to the education of the youth, was far from
satisfying the minds of the people, and of even a por
tion of the clergy. Not only was it soon discovered
who they really were, but a government-rescript to the
magistracy of the metropolis (29th November 1820),
signifying that the Ligorians were to be henceforth in
possession of the unlimited control over all concerns
belonging to religion and education, soon opened the
eyes of the people as to the real character of the new
arrivals, by which a direct lie was given to the previous
explanation given by the Imperial Court. Various
attempts were therefore made to expel the Ligorians
from Vienna, apparently with the tacit consent of
Metternich, since in an article of a semi-official cha-
84 THEY PROSPER DESPITE PUBLIC OPINION.
racter, in the Allgemeine Zeitung (13th August 1 822),
it is said that c the Jesuits, under the name Redemp-
torists, who had begun to establish themselves at
Vienna, are about to leave the metropolis and the
empire altogether; one of the greatest and influen
tial statesmen there, having given his countenance to
their removal, by which he has given new proofs of
the great interest he takes in the true education
and enlightenment of the people." There can be
no doubt, that such a measure was really in contem
plation by the Austrian government, but which the
fathers and their adherents knew well how to frus
trate in right time.
It is curious to see how these masked Jesuits con
tinued to acquire land, wealth, power and influence
in the metropolis of Austria, despite the disposition
of its jovial and merry inhabitants, who are but little
given to bigotry, despite the numerous bon-mots, witty
satires and sarcasms, with which they (the Jesuits)
were continually persecuted, and despite the con
tempt with which they were met by everybody high
and low. Their meekness and impudence, their per
severance and importunateness, were equally great.
Keeping only one object in view, they bore patiently
DEPRAVITY OF THEIR PUPILS. 85
every humiliation and persecution, not unlike the
donkey, who is unmindful of the lashes with which
he is treated when busy with eating across the fence
the thistles of the neighbouring proprietor. They
strove zealously for situations as tutors in high fami
lies, as also for the privilege of confessing criminals
on the scaffold a right which hitherto belonged to
the Capuchine monks alone. They were not unsuc
cessful in their labours; they could soon boast of
being intrusted with the education of a considerable
number of high-born youths, though some unpleasant
rumours were abroad about the conduct of the pupils
in one of their private boarding-schools, an establish
ment managed by a Protestant clergyman in their ser
vice. It was ascertained, that many of the young gen
tlemen, chiefly belonging to high Polish and Italian
families, were much given to certain secret vices, and
that the sons of counts and other high noblemen who
had shown themselves a pattern of religious discipline,
devotion and prayers, were in the habit of stealing
from their schoolfellows watches, chains, and other
jewellery, the value of which they squandered away
in brothels and other dens of vice and prostitution.*
* Schuselka "Der Jesuitenkrieg, etc.," p. 302.
86 NUMBERS OF THE FAIR SEX ATTEND THEIR CHURCH.
With unparalleled effrontery, the Ligorians forced
themselves into sick and dying chambers, against the
will of the patients and their families, a circumstance
which soon raised the suspicion that their object was
merely the obtaining a legacy for the church or
themselves. They principally laid siege to rich old
widows and influential ladies, while the fair sex gene
rally formed one of their principal objects of specula
tion, intrigues, and machinations, and not without
brilliant success. Their church soon became the
rendezvous of all pious females, and even elegant
ladies of the higher classes gradually began to attend
their masses and sermons, and to ease their own
hearts and conscience in the confessionals, being
powerfully attracted by the eloquence, philanthropy,
and wisdom of the manly and handsome paters.
Neither were they in want of baits for the stronger
sex. Their sermons, and more especially those of
John Emanuel Veith,* attracted the attendance of
even the enlightened portion of the public, though
few could relish the strictures made by him on the
* He was by birth a Jew, had studied medicine, after
wards theology, and entered at last (1823) the order of the
Ligorians.
THEY ESTABLISH A PRESS OF THEIR OWN. 87
works of their best poets, such as Schiller, Goethe,
&c., which were stigmatised as " inventions of the
devil." The same Veith, however, thought it proper
in 1830 to quit the order, and accept the canonry
at St. Stephen s church in Vienna, since which time
he was so bitterly annoyed and persecuted by the
members of the order, that he was obliged to relin
quish the living.
Neither did they lose sight of the Press, the usual
organ of public opinion. In 1828 they obtained the
permission to establish a " congregational Press,"
and the country soon became deluged with their re
ligious tracts. Their prior, pater Anton Passy,* was
the editor of a vast collection of religious poems,
while by his peculiar talent in book speculations, the
congregational Press became one of the most nourish
ing in the country. Passy was upon the whole a
talented and very adroit disciple of Loyola, who,
despite his extreme fanaticism, was distinguished for
his affable behaviour, deep knowledge of the human
heart, and a vein of original humour. The paters
* He was born at Vienna 31st March, 1783, and committed
suicide in 1846, having been, it was said, implicated in the
Grallician insurrection.
88 THE FATHERS ALLOWED TO ERECT A CONVENT.
were indebted to him, to the Empress Augusta, and
to the pious Count Cudenhofen (who became after
wards a member of their order) , for the permission
which Francis I., notwithstanding the most lively re
monstrances from many quarters, and even from the
police, accorded them in J 830 to erect a convent at
Rennweg, one of the suburbs of Vienna. Thus was
renewed here the custom of the Middle Ages, when
to every male order was attached a similar female
one, the cloister and convent being usually built in the
same square opposite each other, and joined by sub
terraneous passages. A few old widows of fortune
having taken the veil and become tenants of the new
building, their property was naturally bequeathed
to the institution, and their example was soon fol
lowed by other individuals of all ages and stations in
life. The paters having given to the institution the
name Penitentiary, it became the receptacle of gay
women and prostitutes, whom the fathers proposed to
reclaim to society. Vienna was indeed then notori
ous for debauchery, loose manners, and immoral life,
and no wonder that such an institution, with such an
avowed object in view, found praise in the eyes of the
more steady and moral part of the community ; but
THEY EMPLOY SERVANTS AS SPIES IN FAMILIES. 89
whether the pious fathers were just the men to effect
the purpose, is a different question. It is true, that
a certain Countess D became president of this
Magdalen establishment, but her own previous life
was anything but regular and virtuous. It is at all
events beyond all doubt, that no perceptible reform
became obvious in the life of the fair sex, and more
especially of the servants and nurserymaids of Vienna,
ever since the paters had been intrusted with the
task. By such and similar means, the pious fathers
succeeded in acquiring in a comparatively short space
of time a considerable influence among the two
extremes of society, the highest and the lowest. The
middle classes, it is true, generally evinced contempt
and hatred for them, but they had gained friends
among the higher and educated classes, and, as is
generally the case, the lower classes were not slow in
imitating their betters. All the servants of both
sexes, whose confessors they were, the fathers
employed as secret spies, from whom they frequently
learnt the most secret affairs of their masters and
mistresses. To like and similar purposes they also
employed the filles per dues among the higher and
lower classes, by bribes of absolution and spiritual
90 PRINCE METTERNICH BECOMES THEIR FRIEND.
blessings, and even, if necessary, by money and other
presents of a material nature.
Neither did the Ligorians understand less the
mercantile art of making money by way of interest.
The millions which they had accumulated within the
short space of ten years, were not merely the fruit
of begging, presents, and legacies, but also of usury
and finance operations on the Exchange, which they
carried on with a tact and judgment worthy of our
Barings and "Rothschilds.
With the increase of wealth and influence among
the aristocracy, they at last gained also the good
wishes and patronage of Austria s real regent, Prince
Metternich. It is true, that to some extent, also,
female influence* acted upon the mind of the chan
cellor of the empire, as it did upon its nominal ruler,
Francis, and after him Ferdinand I. ; that influence
was, however, not strong enough to produce such a
change in his mind, which must rather be sought in
truly political motives, by which alone he could be
induced to court the friendship rather than provoke
the enmity of the Jesuits. In the political system
* Metternicli s third wife was the Countess Melanie Zichy,
a friend of the Jesuits.
HIS REASONS FOR FAVOURING THE JESUITS. 91
adopted by that statesman, it is well known what an
important part the priests played in Italy, by the
assistance they gave, to extinguish the flame of re
bellion among the masses on the one hand, and to
fan the spirit of jealousy among the Italian princes
on the other. It is further known, that Austria s
moral rule in Italy is absolutely founded on the ab
sence of all reforms and innovations in the existing
order of things, and that it was only the crafty
Jesuits alone who could be employed for the accom
plishment of such a difficult task. It was they, in
deed, who bridged over and preserved, more especially
during the pontificate of Gregory XVI., the sove
reign power of Metternich at Rome, Turin, and
Naples. This was the price at which the states chan
cellor had no doubt granted them his favour and pa
tronage, while the co-operation of the Loyolites in the
process of enslaving Italy, was probably the strongest
bond that chained Metternich to the disciples of
Ignatius. Gioberti j s* bitter complaints of the Jesuits
in Austria, on whose coalition, he says, the subjection
of the Peninsula depends, sets the question at rest,
if any doubt is still entertained on the subject.
* II Gesuita moderno, III.
\
92 HE IMPOSES RESTRICTIVE CONDITIONS ON THEM.
Neither must we omit to mention, that Metternich
had attached to the favours which he granted to the
Loyolites in so liberal a manner soon after his third
marriage (30th January, 1831) conditions by which
he thought to render them harmless to the country.
He enjoined the members, among others, not to
accept legacies, donations, and endowments, nor to
receive novices and missionaries from abroad, without
first acquainting Government with the facts, and
requesting its sanction to the same ; nor should they
even be permitted to introduce new school books, or
even teachers, without previous consent of the state.
The Austrian Jesuits, moreover, engaged themselves
to limit their connection with their general at Rome
simply to matters concerning the internal affairs of
the order, and also not to allow any of their profes
sors to purchase lands in the realm, &c. &c. All these
conditions the Jesuits would in any other country
have rejected with indignation ; in Austria, however,
they willingly subscribed to them, aware that it
would not be difficult to violate them with impunity ;
while Metternich plainly showed, on the other hand,
by his ready belief in the efficacy of such restric
tions, how little he knew of the spirit of the order, of
THEIR PROGRESS IN GALLICIA. 93
the impossibility to render it less injurious to the
state by bulwarks of paper, or to be guarded against
their poisonous attacks, wherever they are allowed
to come into close contact with society.
In the same year in which the sons of St. Ignatius
made their entrance into the metropolis of Austria,
they settled likewise in the eastern province of the
realm, in Gallicia, where they were joined by a por
tion of their colleagues who had been expelled from
Russia, and where they at once settled under their
real name, Jesuits. The Gallicians, like the Poles,
entertained no prejudice against the Jesuits, who in
consequence thought it unnecessary to appear in
disguise. Emperor Francis I. transferred to them
(August 1820) the Dominican cloister at Tarnopol,
to be converted into a college, and allowed each of
the fifty paters who entered it, an annual pension of
300 florins. Shortly afterwards, he delivered to them
also the high-school of the place, where they subse
quently built, at their own cost, also a philosophical
institution, besides boarding-schools and other estab
lishments of education. All these establishments and
institutions formed the principal colony of the Jesuits
in Gallicia, and which soon flourished to a consider-
94 THEIR INSTITUTIONS AT LEMBERG.
able extent. Already in 1822 the high-school at Tar-
nopol counted above 400 (in 1841, however, only
336), and the philosophical institution 141 students.
It is related of pater Dunin, one of the professors
there, that he used to the end of his life (1838), to
go about from house to house and beg alms for the
support of the poor students in his department.
Besides the above establishments, they also founded
a college at Prezemysl, another at New-Sandecz, with
a high- school attached to it, as also one for the chil
dren of the nobility in the capital, Lemberg, be
sides many religious and missionary establishments
at Mylatin, Staravies, and other places. From
Government they obtained in return for the new
institutions founded by them, an annual contribution
of 20,000 florins, in addition to the large revenues
from the estates at Viniki (which possesses one of the
largest tobacco manufactories in the monarchy), for
the support of the establishment at Lemberg. The
Gallician Jesuits were also in many other respects
in the enjoyment of particular favours and rights
above those in any other part of the empire. They
were not only exempt from the aforementioned re
strictions stipulated by Metternich, but they were also
CONFLTCT BETWEEN JESUITS AND GREEK CLERGY. 95
at liberty to receive in their colleges students who had
been expelled from the imperial university on account
of idleness or inaptitude, and of which privilege they
availed themselves to an immoderate extent. The
step naturally generated bitter feelings between the
two opposite institutions, and has probably not a little
contributed to lower the literary respect of the pious
fathers in the eyes of the public. The almost extra
vagant rights awarded by Metternich to the Gallician
Jesuits, led to the suspicion that the chancellor in
tended to weaken by their aid the popular agitation
and aristocratic influence in that country. Recent
events have however shown the inefficiency of the mea
sures, which were of a too startling and curious nature
not to render their motives plain and obvious. There
were but few among the Polish nobility who paid
homage to the Loyolites; their influence, indeed,
was chiefly confined to the dregs of society, and
more particularly to women who stood in need of
mild and indulgent confessors. On the other hand,
the movements of the Jesuits in Gallicia proved a
great check to the Russian intrigues there. The
clergy, or popes as they are called, of the United
Greek Church, which numbers, in this part of former
96 NOT ALLOWED TO SETTLE IN HUNGARY.
Poland,, not fewer votaries than does the Roman Ca
tholic Church, had suffered a great deal by the in
creasing influence of the Jesuits, who, to insinuate
themselves also into the good graces of the Greek
inhabitants, performed gratis amongst them the cere
monies of marriage, christenings, and other clerical
duties, which usually formed a portion of the church
revenue there. The Greek clergy thus provoked,
addressed the Russian Court on the subject, made
common cause with it, and assisted it in its move
ments to agitate the country in the name of the holy
church and orthodox religion.
At a somewhat later period, the Loyolites ventured
to appear on the political stage also in Hungary, where
Klobuszycki, archbishop of Kalocza (himself once a
Jesuit) spared no efforts to procure them rights and
favours. Their first settlement was at Presburg;
but their whole existence in Hungary remained il
legal for want of the requisite formal sanction of
the states. The pious fathers had indeed fre
quently, and more especially in 1840, petitioned the
Diet on the subject; but although their request
had been warmly supported by Government, it was
always negatived by the majority of the Diet,
INTRODUCTION INTO GERMAN AUSTRIA. 97
among whom were most of the bishops, members
of the states.
It soon became evident that the people at large,
and even the clergy of German Austria, evinced great
repugnance towards the disciples of Loyola, and the
Austrian Government thought it therefore prudent
to introduce them also there, under the milder name
of Redemptorists. Their great patron, the prince-
bishop of Sekau, Zangerle, transferred to them as
Redemptorists, towards the close of 1826, the parson
age at Fronleiten, in the parish of Gratz, and after
wards (1834) that at Marburg, as also the former
Franciscan cloister at Mautern, without meeting with
any serious opposition to the grants. When Zangerle,
however, ventured in the spring of 1829 to invite four
paters from Gallicia, for the purpose of settling them
as Jesuits in the country, he met with remonstrances
from many quarters. He had made to the fathers on
their arrival a present of the college of the Piarists,*
at Gleisdorf, which had been abandoned by the latter
since 1824. No sooner, however, had the Jesuits
* Or fathers of the pious schools (scholarum piarum), a
religious order founded at Rome by a Spanish nobleman
Casalanza, in 1621, for the special purpose of national educa
tion.
F
98 GREAT OPPOSITION.
taken possession of the building, than it was reclaimed
by the Piarists, who compelled the fathers to quit it
in less than five months. Thence they removed to
private lodgings, near the lake at Gratz, in which
house an actress of that place was also tenanted.
The pious fathers, accustomed to female society, were
far from objecting to her proximity, and she even
proved a useful instrument in their hands to pro
mote their influence among her acquaintances. The
citizens of Gratz, however, were so prejudiced against
the Jesuits, that they would not tolerate them
within the precincts of the town, and the paters
were thus obliged to occupy the same suburban
lodgings for nearly three years, until father Streger
succeeded by his oratorical powers to render him
self popular as a preacher, and remove, or at least
weaken in some measure, the preconceived anti
pathy of the inhabitants to the Jesuits. The Go
vernment then hesitated no longer to transfer to
the order, in 1832, the Dominican cloister on the
Miinzgraben, but without the lands belonging to it,
as their support was to be defrayed by the education
fund. In the same year (1832) the paters were
introduced into the Archduchy Austria, under the
SETTLEMENT IN TYROL. 99
name Redemptorists, where they established their
first settlement in the former Franciscan cloister.
As Jesuits they appeared only in 1836 at Linz, the
capital of Upper Austria, where the Archduke Maxi
milian of Este erected for them an excellent set
tlement, close to the town. He converted one of the
best fortress-towers there into a rural mansion, built
a church close to it, and added besides lands and rents
sufficient for the support of the thirty paters, who had
removed to that charming place on the 10th August,
1839. The inhabitants of Linz were, however, far
from sharing the partiality of the prince, their re
pugnance towards the Jesuits having increased rather
than diminished on further acquaintance with them.
When we consider for what purposes the servants
were employed at Vienna by the Jesuits, it cannot
be wondered that the inhabitants of Linz should
have taken the precaution to stipulate with their
servants, on engaging them, not to go to confession
to the Jesuits.
About the same time, the Jesuits also succeeded in
settling in the Tyrol under their real name, to the
indignation of the people, and even clergy, who in
other respects are notorious for bigotry and fanaticism.
F 2
100
Even the prince Bishop of Trient had at an earlier
date declared, " he had no need of the Loyolites, as
the existing clergy were efficient, and sufficient for
the spiritual necessities of his people."
A very great mediator for the trans-settlement of
the Jesuits into this Alpine country was Joseph,
baron Giovanelli, who, after having in his earlier
days profusely sacrificed at the shrines of quite dif
ferent deities, had in his later days turned devout,
and conceived a great predilection for the society of
Jesus, especially after their great success and ex
tended influence at Vienna. He was for a long time
watching for a proper opportunity, to satisfy the
ardent wishes of the order to settle in Tyrol, which
opportunity he at last found in the year 1838. The
professors and members of the Premonstration or
der* in the bishopric Wilten, disgusted with the mis
management of the restored Theresa Institution at
Inspruck,t thought proper to resign their functions.
* An ecclesiastical order founded in 1120 by a certain
Robert Danton, at Lecon, in France, at the revelation of God,
as he said, upon a certain meadow (premontre, pratum mon-
stratum), hence the name.
f It was founded by Maria Theresa, for the education of
the youths of the nobility.
SUCCESS IN TYROL. 101
Count Frederic "Willczeck, governor of the province,
being rather at a loss how to replace them, Giovanelli
at once proposed to him the Loyolites. Though the
count readily assented to the proposal, he anticipated
nevertheless serious opposition from various quarters
against the execution of the plan, and particularly
from the professors of the Inspruck University,
who for the most part were clergymen. To render
the expected opposition ineffectual, it was resolved
to represent the appointment of the Jesuits as
being made in compliance with the general wish of
the people, while the representatives of the Ty-
rolian Diet were persuaded by Giovanelli to ex
press as much in their decision, and request conse
quently the imperial assent to the resolution. Two of
the most important ecclesiastical members of the Diet
of 1838, had already previously been instructed from
Rome, stoutly to support Giovanelli s godly efforts,
while the lay members were obliged to assent to the
motion from fear of being branded as heretics by the
pope. The decree which was to be presented for
sanction to the throne required: that both the
Theresa-Academy and the University at Inspruck
should be tranferred to the Loyolites. On the 17th
102 CONTROL OF THE UNIVERSITY.
October, 1838, the sanction from the throne arrived,
by which the Theresa Academy was to be given up to
the Jesuits immediately, and the University only
gradually. Already before the close of the year
(24th Dec.) five paters with their superior, Lange,
appeared in the capital of Tyrol, where they under
took (13th Jan. 1839) the conduct and management
of the afore-mentioned institutions, and took posses
sion also of the church formerly built by themselves.
The Jesuits now endeavoured to get entire posses
sion also of the university at Inspruck, or at least
to exercise unlimited control over it. They began
with complaining, that the room in their own college
was not spacious enough for the students, whose
number was daily on the increase. Their patron Gio-
vanelli thereupon prevailed upon the committee of the
noble states to report to the provincial government,
and request it to let a part of the university building
to the Jesuits. Count Willczeck, though no enemy of
the latter, still thought it prudent to decline interfer
ing in the matter, while the education commission of
the supreme court at Vienna flatly rejected the Report.
Having failed in this plan, another was projected,
purporting to create a rival institution to the Uni-
CONTRIBUTION-CIRCULAR. 103
versity by the establishment of a boarding-school
(convictorium) on a grand scale, for the education of
the children of the nobility. It was again Giova-
nelli who was intrusted with the petition to the Diet
(May, 1841). No sooner, however, had he proposed
to levy a regular tax on the landed property of the
province, to defray the expenses of the projected
establishment, than he was left in a great minority
on the question. It met with the same fate also at
Vienna, government not being inclined to order a
new tax for that special purpose, though it had no
objection to the erection of the establishment by any
other means, save the public treasury.
Nothing, therefore, was left to the poor disciples of
Loyola but to procure the means by voluntary con
tributions from the wealthy Tyrolians. A committee
was in consequence formed (May, 1842) under the
auspices of the prince bishops of Trient and Brixen,
to receive contributions for the charitable under
taking. In the introductory part of the circular,
mention was made of the efforts to preserve the
Catholic confession in Tyrol from the erroneous doc
trines which had begun to taint the true religion in
other parts of Europe, ever since the middle of the
104 THE NUNCIO LAYS THE FIRST STONE.
sixteenth century, while the merit of having preserved
it in that manner, was therein ascribed to the inde
fatigable labours of the Jesuits, who, happily for the
country, have again made their appearance in this
part of the orthodox world. The committee then
dwelt on the great benefits that had already resulted
from their management of the Theresa Academy, and
the general wish expressed by the people at large, to
establish a similar institution for the benefit of the
youth of all classes of society, &c., &c., &c. The
sum collected in this way was, however, so small,
that recourse was had to loans, and these even were
barely sufficient to cover one fourth of the necessary
outlay. The papal nuncio at the imperial court
(1843) had been invited to lay the first stone of the
building; his presence, however, which it was thought
would rouse the charitable feelings of the public for
the object in view, produced just the contrary effect.
The civic guard at Inspruck, who had been sum
moned to form the guard of honour for the high
dignitary of the church, refused to comply, and be
fore the papal ambassador had, in company with the
prince Bishop of Brixen, entered the splendid tent
erected for them, Baron Giovanni (who, by the bye,
THE PEOPLE REFUSE TO SEND THEIR CHILDREN. 105
did not figure with a single groat in the afore
named subscription list), and Count Reisach, were
received by the assembled crowd with loud hisses.
All the efforts of the fathers to rouse the interest of
the Tyrolians in behalf of the new institution proved
fruitless, and it became evident that the people were
far from wishing to intrust the Jesuits with the
education of their children. After many manoeuvres,
the building was at last finished in 1844; but though
it contained rooms for 300 pupils, there was, in 1846,
only one pupil in it.
This resolute antipathy of a people so thoroughly
catholic, bigoted, isolated, and excluded fiom all con
tact with the protestant world and literature, was
solely the result of experience, which the Tyrolians
had made of the character and proceedings of the
Jesuits during the short time of their new residence
amongst them. The Inspruck University, previously
the best educational establishment in the land, as
also the Theresa institution, had undeniably retro
gressed in the few years they had been managed by the
Loyolites. The pupils had decreased in learning and
mcreased in moral corruption. Many families were
therefore obliged either to keep tutors at home, or
F 3
106 CONFIDENCE OF THE WEAKER SEX.
to send their children to the college or hall, an insti
tution of which the paters had vainly tried to be
come the managers. Neither were many parents
more satisfied with the extravagant bills sent to them
by the conductors of the Theresa Academy for addi
tional and extra expenses of their children, which fre
quently amounted from 200 to 300 florins. Nor were
the attempts of the paters at gaining the good opinion
of the weaker sex less conspicuous in Tyrol than
elsewhere. They threw the torch of discord into
the domestic circles of happy couples, they rendered
the women dissatisfied with their lot, and persuaded
them to renounce connubial connections and do
mestic life, and rather seek spiritual bliss in the so
litude of the convent. Great complaints were also
made against them, for alluring girls to confession.
They questioned them in the confessional on things
which could but make them blush, though they
exacted from them a promise never to marry, in
order, no doubt, to have the control over every
farthing the silly creatures were in possession of.
Obtaining legacies by foul means was another sort
of grievance brought against them. An old spinster
living in rural retirement and simplicity at Kaltern,
THE PEOPLE ARE DISSATISFIED.
had been persuaded to bequeath to the Jesuits a le
gacy of vineyards and houses amounting to 35,000
florins. The reasons assigned in the will for that
legacy, as also some other clauses in it, were of such a
character as to produce suspicion in the minds of the
judges at Vienna, that unfair means had been em
ployed to induce the old simpleton to the step ; and,
among others, that it was done to expiate the sin
committed by her father in having purchased an
estate which had formerly belonged to the bishopric
Tegern; in addition, the testatrix named the pope
as the highest judge on the validity of her instruc
tions in the will. Many other instances of the co
vetous and selfish habits of the Loyolites were not
calculated to diminish the bad odour in which they
stood with the public. It was thus a notorious fact,
that they were levying contributions for the mainte
nance of their missionaries at home and abroad from
the poor labourers, female servants, and even children;
that, in short, every pretence had been used to fill
the purses of the pious fathers with the hard earnings
of the poorer classes.
No wonder, then, that the eyes of even the bigoted
Tyrolians should at last have become opened to the
108 THE EFFECT OF YAGER^S ESSAY.
real character of the Jesuits, and that their dislike
of them should have increased from day to day.
It was at Inspruck in particular, where the great ma
nifestation to that effect took place in March, 1844.
Count Clemens of Brandis, successor of Willczeck
(1841), as governor of the province, had ordered
that scientific evening meetings should, according to
custom, be held during the winter season ( 1843-1844),
in the Ferdinand institution, the name of the society
of arts, sciences, and literature, in the place. One of
the subjects brought under discussion in the meeting,
was a paper on the history of Tyrol, by Pater Albert
Yager, late professor at the college at Meran. As
an impartial historian, he could not help sketching
the mischievous operations of the Jesuits in Tyrol
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He
showed, that the period from 1567 1767, when the
Loyolites ruled in the land, was one of the sad
dest and most disgraceful in the pages of her history
and that the Tyrolians had in those days sunk into
the deepest abyss of depravity and immorality.
Yager s essay produced the more effect, as his lan
guage was eloquent and temperate, and his arguments
well supported by undeniable facts. The essay was
ATTEMPT TO PURLOIN THE MS. 109
spoken of in the highest terms by all classes of so
ciety. Yager was saluted everywhere as the man
who had dared to speak the truth in plain open lan
guage, while his name was drunk at every party
with the most cheering enthusiasm, as the hero of
historical truth and revealer of great facts. The
numerous complaints made by the Jesuits and their
friends on that score, induced Count Brandis, as pre
sident of the society, to forbid further discussions on
historical subjects; but public opinion had become so
strong against the Jesuits (there were about eighty in
the place), that the latter found in it more subject for
regret than even in the essay of the historian. Their
endeavours to get hold of the manuscript, and the
attempt of one of the paters even to break open the
desk where it had been locked up, so irritated the
public, that the fathers thought it prudent to remove
the culprit from the place. The rumour of the at
tempted theft had in the meanwhile reached the
metropolis, and Government at last issued an order
to the governor of Tyrol, to keep a watchful eye
on the steps of the Jesuits, and not to allow them
too much latitude in the province.
110 OTHER PARTS OF GERMANY.
THE INTRIGUES AND ATTEMPTS OF THE
JESUITS IN THE REST OF GERMANY.
Their Settlement in Anhalt-Kothen and Bavaria.
IN the other parts of Germany, the order found
access much earlier in the countries where either
the people or their princes professed the Protestant
religion, than in those states where both the monarch
and the subjects belonged to the Roman Catholic
Church. The phenomenon may in some measure
be explained by the progress which Pietism, the
twin-brother of Jesuitism, had made at that time
at many evangelical courts in Germany. In the
untiring efforts of the German princes to reduce
their subjects to passive obedience, by withholding
from them liberty of conscience, and the freedom
of thinking for themselves, even the doctrines and
teachings of the Jesuits were considered proper
means by which implicit obedience might be
enforced, and thinking generally checked. Many
princes, it is true, as members of the Protestant
Church, held in abhorrence the pope, the Jesuits,
KING FREDERIC WILLIAM III. Ill
and their church, but they did not withall scruple
to employ Beelzebub to expel Satan,, so long as
it answered the object in view. Neither would
the Loyolites have dared to find their way, since
1824, into Catholic Prussia, into Cologne, Dusseldorf,
Coblenz, and other places of the Rhenish provinces,
if Frederic William III., King of Prussia, had not as
a true Pietist winked at their sly movements. At
Dusseldorf, the good fathers were even allowed to re
take possession of a part of their old college, though
the pious monarch could not help disapproving
of the custom of sending young men from West
phalia and the Rhenish provinces to finish their
studies in the Jesuit colleges abroad. His reluct
ance to that step arose from fear of casting thereby
a slur upon the efficiency of the schools at home,
rather than of seeing the pupils imbibe erroneous
principles and doctrines in religion. He allowed,
like Frederic the Great, every one of his sub
jects to go to heaven in the best way he thought
proper, while on earth there was but one narrow
path for his subjects to walk implicit obedi
ence to the will of the sovereign. In this spirit he
issued a decree (13th July, 1827) prohibiting the
THE GERMAN COLLEGE AT ROME.
youth, of his realm to frequent the Jesuit colleges
abroad,, and particularly in countries, the homes of
revolutionary movements.
The prohibitory edict was chiefly directed against
the German college at Rome, which Pius VII. had
restored in 1817 for the purpose of planting in Ger
many a new race of true orthodox (Catholic) inhabi
tants, the religious principles of the old existing race
having become, he thought, rather modified by the wars
and a contact with the impious enlightened nations of
the French empire. That college had already been
frequented by a considerable number of Prussian
students, some of whom, on their return, had not
failed to give practical examples of the doctrines
and fanaticism they had imbibed at college. Jacob
Fontana, the first pupil of the restored college, had
as coadjutor of the curate at Bern, in the years
1823 and 1824, so outrageously attacked the "abomi
nation " of mixed marriages, that the local govern
ment was under the necessity of removing him from
the town and the canton. The German college at
Rome had, moreover, assumed the nature of the
Pandora-box for Germany. Many of those indivi
duals who had played in the religious agitations of
PRINCIPLES IMBIBED THERE. 113
Germany an unhappily important part, had received
their education in that school, where patriotism,
toleration, and philanthropy are reckoned frail human
foibles. Of the one hundred and twenty-five priests
who have, in the twenty years from 1822 to 1842,
been educated there for Germany (besides sixty-four
for Switzerland), we will only mention two, the papal
Court-prelate Count Reisach, previously Bishop of
Eichstadt, and now Archbishop of Munich- Freising,
and Anton Stahl, Bishop of Wiirzburg, two men who
have acquired notoriety in the religious agitations of
that period. In consequence of the villanous maxims
which the pupils are taught in that institution, and
which prove so injurious to countries of mixed con
fessions, even the Austrian Government has found it
necessary to prohibit the youths of its dominions
from frequenting that college at Rome. Similar pro
hibitions were afterwards also decreed in other Ger
man states, and even in Hanover (1845), though the
late king and the provincial government were so little
prejudiced against the Jesuits as to allow a con
siderable number of them to settle in the state.
Bavaria, however, especially under the Abel Ministry,
thought that the fears entertained by the German
114 THE SAXON MONARCH.
governments against that college were quite illusory,
and that no harm whatever could accrue to the state
or the pupils from their visiting that institution. Prus
sian students, therefore, who had been refused pass
ports to Rome from their own government, had only
to go to Bavaria, where they were provided with the
documents without much difficulty. Having finished
their studies in that college at Rome, they returned
to Bavaria, where some friends managed not only to
procure their permission to re-enter Prussia, but
even to obtain lucrative livings for them in Trier,
Munster, and other Prussian dioceses.
Most aggravating for the German Protestants was
the position acquired by the Jesuits in the very home
of the Reformation, in Saxony, owing to the circum
stance that the royal family there are members of
the Catholic Church. Already, in the last years of
King Frederic Augustus I. (died 1827), the great in
fluence which a Jesuit confessor exercised upon the
hoary monarch had caused no little alarm to the
Protestant population of Saxony, But that Jesuitical
influence had still more increased under his successor.
King Anton, a staunch devotionist, who had for the
salvation of his soul, during an uninterrupted series
A JESUIT COLLEGE AT DRESDEN. 115
of fifty- six years, heard mass twice a day, was led by
the Jesuit Gracchi, the confessor and confidant of
the whole court, into measures enough to alarm even
less zealous Protestants than the Saxons. Not only
were unproportionally large sums of money appropri
ated for the education of the Catholic youths, (though
the whole Catholic population there amounted at
that time to no more than 25,000 souls,) but it was
soon also ascertained that the monarch and the go
vernment had actually resolved to establish and en
dow in the suburb of Dresden a Jesuit college in due
and legal form. The petitions which poured in from
all parts of the kingdom, and even the remonstrances
from the press against that contemplated measure,
were treated by government with silent contempt,
and it was only after the July revolution, whose
stormy echo had also reached Saxony and encouraged
the people to loud complaints against the Catholic
intrigues at court, that government deigned to assure
the inhabitants that there was no truth in the ru
mour, and that the state never had in view the es
tablishment of such a college. At the express desire
of the Diet, however, a particular clause was inserted
in the constitutional charter (Sept. 1831,) to the
116 CHURCH AT ANNABERG.
effect that "neither new cloisters nor Jesuits, nor any
other monastic order, should henceforth be introduced
in the kingdom." The clause was kept in force, and
strictly acted upon for ten years. But when the
Catholic clergy, in consequence of the Cologne affair,
had begun to raise their head in Germany, where a re
action had taken place in their favour, the Jesuits in
Saxony thought that a fit opportunity was also afforded
to them to renew their previous attempts at settling
in that part of Germany. Not to rouse the popular
indignation all of a sudden, they began with settling at
some distance from the metropolis, at Annaberg, close
to the Bohemian frontier. The spot was indeed well
selected. The poor dwellers of the Mine Mountains,
so given to mystical piety, were well calculated to
spread the influence of the paters, who were so richly
provided with pecuniary means as to dazzle the
wretched population into belief and submission.
Having built a church, the officers attached to it
gradually arrived. Though there were hardly fifty
Catholics among the 7000 inhabitants of Annaberg,
Mauermann, Bishop of Rama, had no difficulty in
persuading the friends of the order, that the esta
blishment of a Jesuit church was indispensable for
DISCOVERED TO BE A JESUIT CHURCH. 117
the small congregation. On the 20th October, 1844,
the solemn consecration of the new temple took place,
and a few days afterwards a rumour spread at Anna-
berg that a tablet bearing a very suspicious inscrip
tion had arrived from Dresden for the church. An
official examination followed, when it was found that
a tablet had actually been inserted in the middle of the
door leading to the niche of the altar, where relics are
kept, bearing the inscription of the consecration of
the church by Bishop Mauermann, in honour of St.
Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xaverius. It was
then clearly established that the temple was not only
a Catholic, but a Jesuit church, devoted exclusively
to the service and worship of the saints to whom it
was consecrated. And as the church could not exist
without officials, the suggestion naturally forced itself
even upon the simple-minded Annabergians, that the
spot had been selected for the settlement of a Jesuit
colony. The discovery called forth loud complaints
throughout Saxony, which increased still more by the
absence of all reply on the part of government to the
earnest representations of the civic authorities at
Annaberg on the subject. It had at the same time
also been ascertained, that there actually existed Jesuit
118 PRESENT MOVEMENTS IN GERMANY.
missionaries in the capital of Saxony, though govern
ment thought it advisable to deny the fact ; the cir
cumstance soon led to popular agitations against the
court and government, and to the sanguinary out
break at Leipsic (1845), which had the effect of cooling
the zeal of the patrons of the Jesuits, and retarding
the projected settlement at Annaberg for some time.
The Jesuits now, as in the time after the West-
phalian Peace, wandered about in all parts of Ger
many, under various disguises, names, and mis
sions, for the sake of proselytism and final settle
ment. There is hardly a capital in purely Protestant
Germany, where such individuals have not made
their appearance and contrived to fix their residence.
The masks, means, and ways they use for that pur
pose, are the same which were made use of in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The order has
also, in modern times, its emissaries residing at places
where universities exist, and more especially in
northern and central Germany. Neither do these
emissaries confine their labours of proselytism to the
students and educated classes alone ; they work with
tolerably good effect also upon the middle and lower
classes. Nor are they quite unsuccessful with the aris-
THE PRESENT PRINCES. 1J9
tocracy of Germany. When King Frederic William
III. of Prussia married in 1824 a Catholic princess
(Augusta of Harrach), the Jesuits intrigued for a long
time to induce the old monarch, by her influence, to
renounce the Protestant religion ; but at the moment
when they were almost sure of success, the princess
herself became a convert to the Protestant religion,
a step by which they were naturally deprived of
their very best instrument, and the plan was thus
frustrated for ever.*
The altered condition in the life of the present
princes, have rendered also the task of the Jesuits to
effect their conversion next to impossible, Only one
single German prince they were able, within the forty
vears since the restoration of the order by Pius VII.,
to convert to the Catholic religion to make him
desert the creed of his fathers ; they were assisted at
his court by the same circumstances which promoted
their views in the former ages. We allude to Prince
Frederic Ferdinand, of Anhalt-Kothen, who had so
lemnised his second nuptials (May, 1816) with the
Countess Julia of Brandenburg, one of the many
* Eichman : " The Secretary of the Legation ; or, the
Cabals of the Jesuits in Germany," p. 278.
120 THE JESUITS IN ANHALT-KOTHEN.
illegitimate children of Frederic William II., King
of Prussia. It was owing to the efforts of the Jesuit
Ronsin, that both husband and wife, during their
protracted residence at Paris, were gained over to
the "only saving church;" the best means he em
ployed to effect the purpose were, it was generally
believed, large advances of money made to the pro
digal couple in that place. After his accession to
the duchy (Jan. 1826), he showed his gratitude, or,
as some will have it, he fulfilled his secret contract
with the Loyolites, by making his capital Kothen
the missionary seat of the pious fathers, under the
presidency of Pater Beck, who instigated the prince
to so many acts of impropriety and chicanery towards
his Protestant subjects, that the duchy escaped the
consequences of a revolution only by the timely
death of the prince, which ensued in August, 1830.
The existence of the mission did not, however, cease
until after the death of the Catholic widow (1848),
when the little duchy fell to the share of the princes
of Dessau and Bernburg.
It is a remarkable fact that in Bavaria, the El
Dorado of priestly craft and machination, the dis
ciples of Loyola were late, much later even than
THEY ARE UNSUCCESSFUL IN BAVARIA. 121
in Austria, in gaining a firm footing. Having
failed in their manifold attempts to induce King
Maximilian Joseph I. to grant them permission to
settle in his dominions, the Loyolites petitioned
his successor, soon after his accession, in 1826, to
allow them to build a house at Munich ; in return
for which boon they engaged themselves to co-ope
rate most vigorously for the regeneration of the
Bavarian people. Though they used the precaution
to present themselves also here under the milder
name of Ligorians or Redemptorists, and to bring
with them in addition, warm letters of recommen
dation from the king s sister, the Empress Caroline
Augusta of Austria, the king peremptorily refused
the request, saying, " that he had no need of them
in Bavaria; and that, though he could not refuse
them an abode there as private foreigners, their
reception as a religious body was out of the ques
tion." Notwithstanding the great change that had
since taken place in the character of that king,
and the deplorable condition to which he nearly
brought his kingdom by his depravity and amours,
a long time elapsed before the fathers succeeded
in settling in that state.
G
122 THE JESUITS IN GREAT BRITAIN.
THE JESUITS IN GREAT BRITAIN.
THE Ex- Jesuits, like all other refugees, had found an
hospitable asylum on Britain s shores, after their ex
pulsion from France and Belgium, by the storms of
the French revolution, at the end of the last century.
They soon acquired as we have mentioned in the
foregoing pages under the name of "fathers of
faith/ the large establishment at Stonyhurst.
Under the protection of the association rights so
liberally guaranteed by the English constitution, and
favoured moreover by the gigantic struggle against
Napoleon I., which had engrossed the minds of the
British statesmen and the public at that period, the
order had already, in 1814, at the time of its univer
sal repristination by Pius VII., gained a vast sphere
of operation in the United Kingdom. The English
paters, who had since 1803, by permission of the pope,
joined the order, which had been restored in Russia,
and reassuined their real name, Jesuits, possessed
ten years afterwards, in addition to their college at
Stonyhurst, about thirty stations or establishments
THE CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION BILL. 123
of more or less magnitude, such as residences, mis
sionary houses, schools, &c. In the forty years which
have since elapsed, and more especially since the pass
ing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill, the order has
made such gigantic progress in Great Britain, that it
possesses now three times as many institutions, at
Canterbury, Liverpool, Bristol, Dublin, and many
more places, though they do not exactly bear the
sign of St. Ignatius. The continual increase of the
order was not, however, viewed by the English Go
vernment and aristocracy, soon after the termination
of the war in 1815, with pleasing or even indifferent
eyes. It formed one of the rocks on which the Catho
lic Emancipation Bill had been wrecked in 1822 and
1825. And even after it was carried, in 1829, clauses
were inserted in the bill, tending to check the further
progress of Jesuitism in England. It was enacted,
among others, that thenceforth all British subjects
who intended to enter an ecclesiastical order or body,
or who had already done so abroad, should report the
same to the local authorities of their parish, and have
it duly registered ; also, that all foreign monks, and
more especially Jesuits, who should venture to come
to England after the publication of the Act, should
G 2
124 THEY EXIST IN SPITE OF THE LAW.
be banished, and eventransported for life, if they did
not voluntarily quit the country within three months.
The legislators, in framing the law, which they no
doubt considered the most efficacious means of check
ing the progress of Jesuitism in the realm, have
thereby shown how little they knew of the spirit of
the order, or the many resources the sly sons of
Loyola are in possession of, which enable them
to circumvent such and similar enactments. The
latter had indeed nothing else to do, but to continue
the practice they had adopted since their first set
tlement in the island. They used to initiate new
members secretly, without the performance of those
ceremonies which elsewhere accompany such an act.
After the termination of the probation time, the
novice used to make his vows before the pater rector
of the institution, when he received from him the
ordination in a small oratory, or chapel, to which no
stranger had access. In this way they do act to this
day, and their number may accordingly vastly in
crease, without the public registers showing any signs
of it. The British members are known to nobody
except to the superiors of the order alone, so well do
the fathers understand how to keep the secret invio-
JESUITISM IN IRELAND. 125
late. Moreover, the strict observance of the letter of
the law, which prevails in English courts of justice,
renders legal conviction rather difficult, and helps to
envelop the machinations of the Jesuits in mystical
darkness. It is only by the fruit, that the operations
of the order in the island are to be known. The
immense progress which Catholicism is making there
at present, is no doubt chiefly, if not wholly, the
work of Jesuitical activity.
In Ireland Jesuitism stalks abroad almost un
masked; and it has become, with its day-light as
sassinations and wholesale murders, almost a dis
grace to civilised nations, while even England suffers
under the infliction of more than one establishment
of this moral pest And what is the result ? Rome
triumphs over England s tendency to popery, and
hails Puseyism as her best ally !
126 THE JESUITS IN BELGIUM.
THE JESUITS IN BELGIUM.
MORE open than in England, lie before our eyes the
workings of the order in Belgium. Here the pious
fathers have no hesitation to show themselves in
their true colours. To understand better the rela
tions of the order in this quarter, we must remind the
reader of the fact, that the Jesuits who had been ex
pelled from Catholic Christendom after the abolition
of the order in 1773, had found an asylum, protec
tion, and a new sphere of operation also, in Protes
tant Holland, and more especially at Amsterdam,
Nimwegen, and Eulenburg. The first use the order
made of their competency after its restoration in
1814, was to mark to the Protestant Dutch, who had
lodged, fed, clothed, and protected its members in
time of their trouble and exile, their sense of grati
tude in a most curious and characteristic manner.
No sooner had they learnt that a united kingdom
of the Netherlands was to be created, than they
presented, through their great patron, Maurice de
Broglie, bishop of Ghent, a memorial to the Vienna
MEMORIAL TO THE VIENNA CONGRESS. 127
Congress, which, has no parallel in point of impudence
and arrogance. It begun by stating, that the Roman
Catholic religion is the only true and saving one;
that the Lutheran and reformed confessions were
mere tolerated creeds ; and it finished by requesting,
among other extravagant demands, that an unre
stricted and independent association right should be
granted to them ; that the tithe-tax might be rein-
troduced for the benefit of their church; and that
they should have the sole control over the higher
education of the young, as an indispensable guarantee
for the religious freedom of the Belgians, ruled as
they are by a heretic prince. The education of the
young by the Jesuits, it added, is not only the unani
mous wish of the Belgian people, but the best, nay,
only means of bringing them up to truly scientific and
religious eminence. In the proud presumption, that
the new monarch, William I., would not venture to
refuse to his southern subjects the general wish for
Jesuit teachers, they made their way at once (1814),
without first obtaining permission to do so, to Bel
gium, under their real name, Jesuits. They found
friends there, who advanced them money, while
Count Thiennes presented them with the castle
128 THE PRELATES AND THE CONSTITUTION.
Rumbeke for their establishments. King William
I. had not only tolerated the Jesuits in Holland, but
had even allowed them to apply (1818) a legacy
which had been bequeathed to one of their mem
bers, Pater Huberti, to the building of a seminary
at Eulenburg, as also to settle at the Hague.
Neither would he have refused them to settle in Bel
gium, if their behaviour had not roused suspicions
in the mind of that prince soon after his accession
to the throne. In the new constitution which he
granted to his subjects, complete liberty of con
science and equal civil rights were guaranteed to all
sects in his realm a principle that prevails in Bel
gium even to this day. In those provinces where
the Catholics formed the minority of the population,
the Loy elites and their friends found no objection to
that principle, but in Belgium, where the majority
were Catholics, they thought it wicked and sinful to
grant to the Protestants equal rights with the Catho
lics; they accordingly opposed the liberal measure
by all means in their power. The Belgian bishops
formally pronounced (August, 1815) the new con
stitution as illegal, and rejected it by a jugement
doctrinal. They accordingly refused, not only to
THE JESUITS REFUSE TO QUIT HOLLAND. 129
take the oath themselves to a constitution which,
they alleged, "tended to oppress and degrade the
Catholic religion," but even to grant absolution to
all those who had taken that oath. At the head of
these rebellious prelates was Maurice de Brog-
lie, who went even a step farther than his colleagues;
he refused to say the usual prayer in the church for
the existing (Protestant) monarch. As it was well
known that he entirely acted upon the counsel and
under the influence of the Jesuits, whose blind in
strument he was, the king, in his indignation, or
dered (3rd January, 1816) the Jesuits to close their
institution at Distelberg, and to quit the united king
dom (Netherlands) immediately. The paters replied,
that they were ready to obey if commanded to do so
by Broglie, their competent judge, otherwise they
would only yield to physical force. Broglie not only
approved of that impertinent declaration, but pro
mised even to protect them, if necessary, with his own
life. Nay, he even put at their disposal his palace at
Ghent, whither they retired as soon as the military
had been despatched to enforce obedience to the royal
will. Broglie having rendered himself guilty of many
acts of sedition and agitation, and even attempts at
G 3
130 THEY ARE EXPELLED BY FORCE.
national insurrection, was summoned to appear before
a tribunal to answer charges of high treason, but he
escaped to France, in company of the pater rector,
where he died, July, 1821. He was considered by
the Belgians as a martyr, King William having acted
rather unadvisedly in causing (9th October, 1817) the
effigy of the prelate to be publicly exhibited on the
pillory at Ghent, at the same time that two con
demned criminals underwent branding on the
spot. The Loyolites were not slow in turning to
account the mistake of the king, instigating the
people to all sorts of acts of violence and agitations
against the heretic monarch and his government. It
was at last found necessary to occupy (February, 1818)
the castle at Ghent by the military, to put under seal
all the papers and furniture found there, and expel the
paters from their stronghold. The order of banish
ment, though it extended to all parts of the kingdom,
was not rigorously executed; a few members were
allowed to remain in Belgium, who now played a
very active and important part under Pater Lemaistre,
in the continued struggle between the clergy and
Government. What particularly irritated the clergy
and the Loyolites against William I. and his consti-
REFORM IN EDUCATION. 131
tution, was not so much the enactment by which all
subjects indiscriminately were to enjoy equal civil and
religious rights, as the abstract principle combined
with it, to civilise and enlighten the masses, and free
them from the bondage of priestcraft, under which
they had been sighing for centuries past, a principle
that even now occupies the mind of all enlightened
patriots in Belgium. Such a grand object could cer
tainly not be effected without first paving the way to
it by the amended education of the young, which had
hitherto been confided to the sole conduct and ma
nagement of the priests, and which had been found to
be exceedingly defective, and even vicious. It was on
that account that the 226th Article of the Nether-
land constitution transferred the control and ma
nagement of public instruction to the king himself,
who in his turn declared it to belong to one of
the chief departments of the state s administration.
By this decision the nerve and sinew of the power
of the Loyolites were broken, and no wonder that
they decried it as infamous, wicked, and blasphe
mous. The zeal with which William I. devoted
himself to the noble task before him, in the face of
all obstacles thrown in his way, was the spur which
332 FRENCH JESUITS IN BELGIUM.
provoked more than any other innovation, the clergy
to the most passionate opposition to the new consti
tution.
Though government was watching with Argus eyes
the movements of the Jesuits, who continued to
form the focus of the opposition, it was not able,
owing to the great facilities given to them by the
clergy, nobility, and the masses, to prevent a great
number of the paters stealing into the country from
France, under various names and disguises, and se
cretly establishing at Ghent, Loweu, Brussels, Liege,
and other places, regular colleges of their own. The
establishments, it is true, were closed by order of go
vernment in 1825, but the Loyolites, in connection
with the other orders, continued to hold their prayer,
religious, and political meetings, to the great scandal
of Government, which not unfrequently, in the con
fusion of the moment, ordered to be transported
across the frontier even members who did not exactly
belong to the Jesus order, such as the " brothers of
ignorance/ and many others of a mystical character.
These rigorous measures might indeed have put a stop
to the machinations of the Jesuits in Belgium, had
they been carried out with strict consequence and per-
THE LIBERALS AND THE JESUITS. 133
severence. King William, however, alarmed at the
great and increasing sympathy evinced for the Jesuits
in his southern dominions,* became vacillating in his
proceedings, by which the Loyolites were naturally en
couraged to further opposition and resistance. In jus
tice to the prince, we must not omit mentioning, that
the Loyolites possessed in the states-council, and even
in the cabinet itself, decided friends, who naturally
did their best to rouse the monarch s fears of a gene
ral insurrection. In the last years of the Dutch rule
over Belgium, the most fatal bastard-alliance was
formed between the Belgian liberals, (to whom the
monarch had rendered himself odious, by refusing
the establishment of juries, by restricting the liberty
of the press, and by other political blunders,) and the
ultra-montane and Jesuit party, an alliance which
finally brought about the fall of the Orange dynasty.
The bait held out to the liberals by the Jesuits and
the clergy, was, uncontrolled freedom of education, on
which the clergy insisted most emphatically. This
* Thus, for instance, though it was forbidden to the
Belgian youth to visit the Jesuit seminaries abroad, there
were in 1826 not less than 150 students at the Jesuit college
St. Acheul, in France, who all belonged to the first families,
and even to the highest states-dignitaries of Belgium.
134 CLAIM OF UNRESTRICTED EDUCATION.
question, as we observed above, had been the prin
cipal bone of contention, ever since the creation of
the united kingdom of the Netherlands, between the
government and the clergy, and it now became the
arena on which the parties contended with increasing
passion. The king having ordered (September, 1825)
that all the numerous private and public schools
established by the clergy against the existing laws,
and which had been mostly conducted by the Jesuits,
should be closed, the measure entirely changed the
plan of operation of the opposing clergy. Previously,
the clergy had the control over public education as a
spiritual branch of humanity, as a right that ex
clusively belonged to their own calling. No sooner,
however, had government itself began to exercise that
control as a state affair, than they changed their cry
into the opposite extreme. They accused government
of wishing to restrict education by subjecting it to its
own management, and converting it into a sort of
states monopoly; they now claimed, in short, with
the liberal portion of the community, free and un
controlled education for their children. Having
once, by help of the bigoted masses and simple-
minded liberals, succeeded in snatching from govern-
IGNORANCE OF THE BELGIAN PEOPLE. 135
ment that monopoly, they thought it an easy matter
afterwards to appropriate it to themselves. The bulk
of the Belgian people was and is in some measure still
in a state of intellectual immaturity and under priestly
subjection, and the so-called liberty in education, if
carried through, could but result in the most cruel
tyranny by the clergy, to whose private motives and
interests the poor ignorant people would be sacrificed
without any hope of redemption. As late as 1826,
instances of popular ignorance, bigotry, and cruelty
occurred in Belgium, of which there is hardly a pa
rallel to be found in any other country of the civilised
world. A countryman was, together with his four
sons, arraigned before the correctional tribunal at
Liege, for having roasted a living woman whom they
considered to be a witch, upon burning coals ; not
satisfied with this cruelty, they afterwards tore with
their hands the flesh from her body, and threw the
dying wretch into the open street. In the same
year, and in the same place, a priest was condemned
to fifteeen years imprisonment for having wandered
about the country as an exorcist, and acted, as he al
leged, according to the rules of the church. It was
also at Liege, and about that time, that children who
136 THE CLERGY AND THE CONSTITUTION.
had visited the Lancasterian schools were excluded
from confession and communion, while all books
which taught that all men, no matter of what reli
gion, are permitted to pray to the Almighty, were
publicly burnt in formal auto da fes.
It is very characteristic of the coalition which the
Belgian liberalists had concluded with the priestly
and Jesuit party, that the latter always prudently
kept in the background whenever a question of some
magnitude arose, on the result of which the fate of
the Dutch government depended. It was only after
the revolution in 1830, that the black coats made their
appearance, to share the fruits which the liberalists
had earned with their blood.
The liberal provisions of the new Belgian consti
tution were soon turned by the clergy and the
Jesuits to their own advantage. The complete
separation of the church from the state, as pro
nounced by the constitution, furnished the clergy
with the privilege to work mischief with impunity.
The extension of suffrage to the most humble and
poor inhabitants in the rural districts, who were mere
machines in the hands of the clergy, furnished the
latter with the most efficacious means to render
THE CONSTITUTION ABUSED. 137
government subservient to Jesuitism and priesthood.
At parliamentary elections, the priests led the
peasants to the voting hall in the same manner as
herdsmen drive their cattle to market ;* there they
stood, a compact body without will and without sense,
to decide by a majority the election contest against
the intelligent and liberal town electors. Aware of
their preponderate power, the priests went even so
far as to treat with the candidates about the condi
tions under which they were to be elected ; and the
neglect or violation of any of the stipulations was
sure to be visited at the next election with expulsion.
There were two other liberal provisions in the con
stitution, which indirectly gave the party the greatest
power possible : freedom of education and association
right. By the first, government lost all control over
the schools, colleges, and universities in Belgium ; it
came into the hands of the rich and influential priest-
* Arrived at the election room, the priests placed their
peasants as a sergeant does his recruits the taller men in
front, and the others behind. They then repeated the
speeches of the previous day, and distributed among the in
dividuals cards with the names of the candidates upon them
whom they wished to support. Those who would vote other
wise, they threatened to treat with rigour at their confessions,
Bran. Miscell. 93, p. 107.
138 NUMEROUS ESTABLISHMENTS IN BELGIUM.
hood, while the association right removed all limits
and restrictions in the establishment of convents,
cloisters, or ecclesiastical orders and monastic corpo
rations. Since that time, the number of these insti
tutions has increased in Belgium beyond all propor
tion, and the diocese of Mechlin, e. g., which pos
sessed in 1827, about eighty-six cloisters, numbers
now more than one hundred and fifty.
We need hardly mention that the Jesuits, even
more than the real parties themselves, displayed zeal
and skill to turn the constitutional liberties to their
own interest. No sooner were these liberties granted,
than Belgium became overrun with the disciples of
Loyola ; it seemed as if they had grown out from the
very soil. Within a few years, they erected colleges
at Namur, Antwerp, Liege, Tournay, Lowen, Bruges,
Mons, Courtnay, Verniers, Turnhout, Brussels,
Ghent, Alost, and various other places. To all
these institutions were attached boarding-schools for
the sons of the higher and middle classes, some
of them numbering already, after a few years, more
than two hundred boarders ; while the " brothers of
ignorance," the tail of the Jesuits, had also estab
lished themselves, with brilliant success, for the in-
THEY DEFAME THE FREE UNIVERSITY. 139
struction of the lower classes. In 1841, the schools
of the latter at Brussels had been visited by two
thousand children, who were probably more at
tracted by the clothes with which they were pro
vided by the brothers, than by their instruction.
Most shameful and revolting were the means which
the Jesuits employed to bring into disrepute and
decay the educational establishments of the state and
the municipalities, as also to convert the universities
in the towns into Jesuit colleges. In the confes
sional, from the pulpit, by the press, by the secret
conferences (to which we will allude by and bye)
with the fair sex, all the institutions which did not
stand under the control and influence of the clergy
were daily branded as heretical, and their teachers
as outcasts, profligates, and wicked. In 1834, a
" free university" had been founded by the vo
luntary contributions of the liberal party at Brussels,
for the purpose of counterbalancing the influence of
the clerical and Jesuit institutions; but the Je
suits spread such scandalous reports against that
new establishment, as also against the Royal Athe
naeum of that place, as soon to bring into decay
these two excellent establishments. Though the
140 DECLINE OF THE UNIVERSITIES.
trustees had positively proved that the rumours were
false and unfounded, it answered, nevertheless, the
purpose in view. The university dragged on a lin
gering existence, the number of the students de
creased every year, while the colleges of Jesuits
became filled not only with the pupils of the free uni
versity, but also with those who had previously visited
the states and civic universities. The total decay
was chiefly owing to the want of competent teachers,
as well as of industrious students in these universities.
Most of the teachers found it to their interest to leave,
and engage themselves rather in the Jesuit colleges,
while but few candidates ventured to apply for the
vacant places, from fear of being run down and
losing their character by the persecuting slanders of
the Jesuits. Another very pertinent circumstance
also contributed to the decrease of the pupils in
those institutions. Many fathers sent their children
to the Jesuit schools merely to enjoy domestic peace
and quiet. Nor was it very difficult to persuade
them to the step, the Belgians being upon the whole
matter-of-fact people, who care less for abstract
learning and sciences than for useful knowledge and
professional arts. Not only were these practical
THEY CONTROL THE PRESS. 141
branches taught at the Jesuit schools, but by the in
fluence of their teachers, the students, on leaving the
colleges, frequently received places under Govern
ment, made rich marriages, or received lucrative em
ployments in some other way.
In the same way as the provision concerning the
liberty of education only served to transfer its control
to the clergy and Jesuits, in like manner did that of
the liberty of the press only serve to introoduce such
barbarous restrictions as are hardly to be met with
even in those countries where the most rigorous cen
sorship exists. While the censorship only controls
the reading, the Jesuits were powerful enough even to
control the reader. After the revolution of 1830,
several liberal journals had made their appearance
in Belgium, but they gradually disappeared from
want of public patronage. From the pulpit, in the
confessional, and the Roman Catholic papers, the
bad (liberal) press was denounced in unmeasured
terms, and absolution refused to their subscribers.
If a man was insensible to the punishment, it was
extended to his wife, on whom it seldom failed to
have due effect. The whole staff belonging to the
liberal press, the compositors not even excepted, were
142 CONSTITUTION AND BONDAGE.
excommunicated, and the printers and publishers
thereby brought to beggary. The same fate was
shared also by the general literature of the country.
The publishers in Belgium expressed themselves
plainly on that score. Any new work, they said,
that does not sacrifice at the altar of the ultra-Ca
tholic clergy is sure to prove a failure, and they must
therefore take good care not to publish any work
which might in the least prove distasteful to the
priesthood. We thus see, that a nation may be pro
vided by its constitution with all sorts of freedom
and liberty, and yet carry heavy chains of bondage,
if it does not join to its political, spiritual and in
tellectual independence ; if, in the foolish disregard of
the higher interests of humanity, it looks at the ma
terial good of the world as the only question of life,
opening thereby the most extensive sphere of opera
tion for spiritual jugglery and moral abuses. No
nation can be called politically free so long as its
mind and reason are kept captive. Moral and mental
freedom is not only the mother, but also the best
safeguard, and the last keystone of civil liberty.
Under these circumstances, we must not cavil too
much with the King of Belgium for having, as a
THE QUEEN AND THE ORDER. 143
Protestant, courted the good graces and friendship of
the Jesuits, since it was impossible for him to sit firm
upon his throne without the aid and assistance of that
body, though it is not improbable that the late queen,
who, like her mother, was rather devout, and a
great patron of the order, may have in some mea
sure inspired her husband with some good feelings
towards the sons of St. Ignatius. It is a well-known
fact, that the queen never failed to attend church
whenever one of the members was to deliver a
sermon. The example of the queen was naturally
followed by the whole female court, and as a matter
of course by the whole female residents of the town.
Jesuit preachers thus became the lions of the day,
and men of high fashion.
Moreover, the influence of the Jesuits on the
female sex, is nowhere so great and pernicious as
in Belgium. It may appear rather strange, that the
Belgian women, who are somewhat devoid of imagin
ative powers and deep feelings qualities by which
elsewhere the Jesuits usually make their way to
female hearts should nevertheless appear so enthu
siastically partial to the members of the order. That
partiality is, however, easily explained. Most people,
144 INFLUENCE UPON THE FAIR SEX.
and particularly women, generally entertain the deep
est respect for those who are superior to them in in
tellectual endowments, and still more so, if the little
they do know has been exclusively derived from the
instruction imparted to them by these superior minds.
In Belgium, the Loyolites are not only confessors
aye, exceedingly mild confessors but also the con
fidants of all family troubles and secrets. Woe to the
man with whom the Jesuits are displeased ; he may
say farewell for ever to domestic peace and comfort.
Neither is their dominion less powerful over the
daughters of the unhappy mothers. They allure the
young girls, under prospects of rich marriages, into
all sorts of pious societies, which stand under the pa
tronage of some favourite Jesuit saints. Their influ
ence is, in short, so unlimited over the female sex in
Belgium, that the husbands never dare to oppose the
private conferences held between their wives and the
paters. The conferences consist, in the woman
retiring for a few days to the convent, where she
practises pious exercises in the presence of the
fathers, who provide her besides with devout rules
for her conduct at home. Into these retreats, only
married women are admitted, a class of the fair sex
THE " FATHERS " AS MISSIONARIES. 145
whose intercourse is particularly courted by the
disciples of Ignatius. If scandalous reports arise
from the overzeal, i. e., too much liberty taken with
the fair sex by the priest in such conferences, or in
the confessional, the superiors have a ready means of
silencing these reports by suddenly removing the
sinner from the place, and sending him as a mis
sionary to some part of America. This circumstance
accounts for the increasing number of such mis
sionaries within the last fifteen years in America.
Also in Belgium we meet with the remarkable,
though not strange fact, that the pious fathers,
having succeeded by the help of the other resident
clergy in establishing themselves, and in acquiring
wealth,^" power, and influence in the land, did not
scruple to turn these weapons against their previous
* Gioberti, p. 83, says, "Arrived at Brussels, they began
with buying the hotel Coulmont for 120,000 f. Since then
they have erected a building which cost them more than a
million, while now the whole of one side of the Ursuline-
street, with the exception of one single house, belongs to
them, and there are hardly two or three houses on the oppo
site side of which they are not the owners. In the excess
of pride they have asked government to allow them to
build a private subterraneous passage, to save them the
trouble of crossing the street."
146 THE UNIVERSITY OF LOWEN.
friends and supporters, in order to force them, like
the laymen, into slavish obedience and moral
bondage. The Loyolites having increased in Bel
gium from 117 members in 1834 to 454 in 1844,
thought that the time had then arrived when they
might play the masters and tyrants even over the
episcopal church in Belgium. The Belgian bishops
had not only always supported the Loyolites in the
most obliging manner, but even followed their counsel
and suggestions in all matters concerning the hier
archy, aware that they (the Belgian Jesuits) stood in
direct communication with Rome, whence they had
also received the secret superintendence over the Bel
gian church. In one respect, however, the bishops
would not and could not comply with the desire of
the Jesuits, to transfer to them the Catholic Univer
sity at Lbwen (which had been founded by the bishops),
for the purpose of converting it into a purely Jesuit
college. Ever since the establishment of that Uni
versity, the sly fathers had tried to gain influence
there by all sorts of machinations, and they finally suc
ceeded in obtaining permission from the Archbishop
of Mechlin, Engelbert van Sterkx, to open a theolo
gical course of lectures in that institution, simulta-
THE BISHOPS AND THE JESUITS. 147
neously with those held by the regular professor of
theology, member of the faculty there. Their lec
tures became so popular as to draw to them even the
theological students of the university, and the conse
quence was that the theological audience soon de
serted their benches in favour of those of the Jesuit
lectures. Having gained that position, the fathers
then requested that the university should altogether
be handed over to them, since the theological lectures,
they argued, which formed the most important branch
of education there, were virtually already in their
hands. The cardinal- archbishop, and the other mem
bers of the episcopate, however, declined to agree to it.
The refusal gave rise to a bitter contest between the
Jesuits and the trustees of the university, on whom, as
usual, the Jesuits lavished ever since 1844 the grossest
calumnies. From the pulpit, in the confessional, and
in their frequent private visits and conferences, they
accused the six Catholic bishops, the inspectors of the
university, of promulgating heretical and revolu
tionary doctrines. The Rector Magnificus, the well-
known fanatical Abbe de Ram, and several other pro
fessors were, they maintained, ultra-liberals, and over
indulgent to the students in their moral training. Nay,
H2
148 COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE PROFESSORS.
they even advised parents to send their children to
the states university at Ghent or Liege, rather than
to that at Lowen. To alarm the parents still more,
they spread a rumour that the students of Lowen
were all attacked with syphilis, and secretly kept
under medical treatment in the private residence of
the professor, Vice-President de Cock. Also at
Rome, and with unparalleled effrontery, even at the
Belgian episcopate, they denounced and brought
complaints against the trustees and professors of that
university. They accused, for example, the rector
and vice-rector of neglect of school discipline, Pro
fessor Ubaghs of his philosophical lectures, his col
league Hallard of his course of irreligious lectures on
French literature, and two professors of medicine of
omitting to attend confession and partake of the
communion.
Absurd and incredible as were all these complaints,
they did not fail to produce at least a partial effect ;
the respect and influence enjoyed by the Loyolites,
especially among the middle and higher classes, were
immensely great. The number of the students at the
Lowen university visibly diminished, and so did the
voluntary contributions by which it was supported ;
THE BISHOPS ADDRESS THE POPE. 149
it soon became evident, that the institution must ere
long cease to exist for want of pecuniary means to
maintain it. The greatest blow was given to the
university by a rival college established by the Je
suits at Namur, where they opened a regular course
of lectures on philosophy and philology, and for
which they succeeded in enlisting a great number of
students. The bishops, seeing all their efforts frus
trated by the cabals of their foes, resolved at a meet
ing which they held in the archiepiscopal palace at
Mechlin, in February, 1846, to address the pope ener
getically on the subject, representing to him the dis
graceful and grievous intrigues of the Jesuits, and re
questing help and redress at his hands. Though they
received in April of the same year a reply from Pope
Gregory XVI., in which he promised them his assist
ance in unequivocal terms, it might still have been a
matter of doubt whether the bishops would after all
have received redress from that quarter, had not that
pope died shortly after, and the chair of Peter been
filled by Pius IX., when the unlimited power of
Father Roothaan in Rome was broken for ever. The
Jesuits, anticipating adverse and critical times for
their order, prudently desisted from further contest
150 THE JESUITS IN FRANCE.
with the Lowen university, and even resolved to
shake hands with the bishops. The consequences of
their intrigues, vindictive feelings, and ambitious
views which they had manifested in the contest, were
however destined to recoil upon their own head. The
eyes of the people were at last opened to the real
character and aspirations of the order; a great many
who had previously proved the best friends of the
Loyolites now spoke openly against their abominable
agitations, and the conviction soon became general,
that the order is the worst and most dangerous
enemy of the country, its constitution, and liberties.
THE JESUITS IN FRANCE.
FRANCE has, on the other hand, the merit of having
combated with exemplary perseverance the spread of
Jesuitism, even under the most trying circumstances
and in the most critical moments of her social and
political convulsions. Already during the consulate of
Napoleon, the Jesuits had, as we have shown in the
foregoing pages, found in France a welcome reception
THE JESUITS AND THE EMPEROR. 151
and encouragement for the spread of their order.
Nay, they even dared, under the protection of friends
and patrons, to defy the subsequent orders of the
emperor for their expulsion. Towards the end of his
reign, they possessed four mansions in Paris alone.
One of them, situated in the Post-street, contained
their largest noviciate, at the head of which stood
Pater Cloriviere, an old member of the order before
its abolition in 1 773, and one of those zealous indivi
duals who by their active perseverance succeed in
keeping up a broken institution for a considerable
length of time. This opposition to the mandates of
the emperor brought him into prison, from which he
was however soon released by the intercession of
some of his female friends. The Bourbons had
therefore no need of importing new Jesuits into
France ; they found them there in considerable num
bers already at their arrival, and the question was
consequently no longer about their admission, but
about the re-introduction of the order in due form
under its real name.
The Loyolites, it may easily be believed, neglected
nothing to accomplish that object in France, which
country seemed to them to be the most appropriate
152 THE PEOPLE PRAY FOR THE JESUITS.
for their movements and success, as possessing the
most decisive influence upon the other Catholic coun
tries of Europe. Already in 1814 the whole of the
pious portion of the Gallican population fasted and
prayed for the speedy and formal re-introduction of
the order in their fatherland. From the pulpits of
many churches, not only praises were sung to the
Almighty for having inspired the pope with the reso
lution of re-establishing the order in the Catholic
world, but also prayers were offered to Heaven to endue
King Louis XVIII. with similar sentiments in France.
In towns, villages, and boroughs, petitions were pre
sented from door to door for signatures, purporting
to address the monarch on the subject, and conclud
ing with the words : " Jesuits and no Charter !" Nor
was the press less employed to support the petitions.
France was then deluged with fanatical tracts and
pamphlets, in which were shown the nullity of all
human charters and constitutions, and the impossi
bility of bringing about real civilization in the
country without the co-operation of the Jesuits, &c.
Louis XVIII. is said to have promised to se
veral fathers, during his abode in England, the re-
establishment of their order, should Providence
LOUIS XVIII. EVADES THE QUESTION. 153
place him upon the throne of his fathers. Neither
is it at all improbable that he should have given such
a promise, that monarch, like many of his brethren in
those days, having sincerely been impressed with the
conviction that the revolution of 1789 was one of the
effects of the abolition of the order in 1773. Be
this however as it may, no sooner had he ascended the
throne of his fathers, than he saw that it was much
easier to give than to keep such a promise, the great
majority of the French population being animated
with an irreconcileable hatred towards the order and
its members. He therefore evasively replied to the
pressing importunities of the friends of the Jesuits,
that circumstances would not for the present allow
the formal re-establishment of the order, and that he
must wait for more favourable opportunities to set
the matter to rights. The paters, however, repeat
edly returned to the attack, and as the monarch not
only remained passive in their favour, but even kept
intact the new constitution granted by him, which in
their opinion not only contained wicked and irregular
concessions, but had even retained those old laws
which declared their order to be illegal in France, they
lost all patience, and openly began to wage war against
B3
154 A WOMAN INTERCEDES IN THEIR BEHALF.
Louis, his government, and the charter. They dis
puted the legitimacy of that prince, on account of his
not having been anointed by the church, which alone
is capable of endowing the rulers of the earth with
wisdom to perform the duties of their high calling.
Pater Boyer carried his impudence so far as even to
describe the prince, in a pamphlet published by him,
as the herald of Anti-christ, for having granted the
constitution to France.*
A monarch so jealous of his authority as that
Bourbon was, could surely not be induced to act in
favour of the Jesuits by means of violence and at
tempts at insurrection, and the latter would hardly
ever have succeeded in conquering the royal ill-will,
if an influential woman, the usual guardian angel of
the order in times of their troubles and adversity,
had not interceded in their behalf. A member of
the order, a certain Abbe Liautard, had rendered an
important service to the Countess du Cayla, the
volatile mistress of Louis XVIII., in her little
intrigues, and thereby inspired her with a very high
opinion of an order that counted so very clever and
* Socke-Arnaud, Memoires d un jeune Jesuite, pp. 11, 17,
and 27.
DESCRIPTION OF FATHER GRIVEL. 155
dexterous an individual in its ranks ; and this favour
able opinion was still more strengthened by the
paters Jennesseaux and Grivel, particularly the
latter, whom the countess quaintly called a model
of a perfect Jesuit.* Since that time the Jesuits
possessed in the countess a charming and skilful
advocate of their cause, though the monarch still
refused to re-establish the order in due form, main
taining that the reintroduction of the Jesuits would
be as great an error as was their banishment. By
the formal instalment of the order, he thought, the
liberals would feel highly offended, while the injuries
caused thereby to the Bourbons and the monarchy
would hardly be compensated by the advantages to
be derived from the talents displayed by the Jesuits.f
With the exception, however, of the formal re-estab-
* " Father Grivel is a model of a Jesuit ; he is pliable,
amiable, caressing, and dissembling. His mind is fine and
delicate, his manners sweet and polished. He insinuates
himself into your familiarity almost against your will. He is
moreover toleration personified. . . . Nothing is more ac
commodating than his moral doctrines. . . . When Morosini
(one of her lovers) died, he did all he could to comfort me and
sooth my grief. How is it possible to resist so much per
severance ? " Memoir es d une femme de qualite sur Louis
XVIII., sa Cour et son Regne, IV. 94.
t Soirees de Louis XVIII., I. 353.
156 GRADUAL SETTLEMENT OF THE JESUITS.
lishment of the order under its real name, the Jesuits
obtained almost all their wishes : the practical
removal of the existing laws against them, the acqui
sition of the most extensive field of operation in
France, and their increasing influence at court and
with the government generally.
Already in October, 1814, and before the publica
tion of the repristination bull of the order, many
Jesuits had settled at Paris, Bordeaux, Amiens,
Soissons, Forcalquier, and many other places of
France, under their pseudo name, " fathers of faith."
A royal decree (5th October, 1814) had indeed paved
the way to these establishments, as also to their
settling under their real name, Jesuits, at Toulouse,
Aix, Avignon, Poitiers, and other places. By that
decree, the so-called "smaller seminaries" were
withdrawn from the superintendence and supervision
of the universities, and permission given to the
bishops to select and appoint their own teachers.
The majority of the bishops, moved partly by friendly
feelings, and partly by the increasing influence of the
Jesuits at court, were easily persuaded to intrust the
latter with the conduct of these seminaries. No
sooner were the Loyolites in possession of the ma-
THE COLLEGES AT ST. ACHEUL AND MONTROUGE. 157
nagement of these institutions, than they founded a
great number of colleges of their own under that
pseudo name, among which was the one at St.
Acheul, near Amiens, which shortly afterwards rose
to the highest eminence in the kingdom. That col
lege soon became one of the most fashionable esta
blishments in the kingdom, so much so, that it was
considered a high favour to have a child educated
there. At the time when that institution was in the
zenith of its glory and prosperity, in the latter days
of Louis XVIII. and the first of his successor, even
the choristers there consisted of the sons of dukes,
counts, and other peers of the realm. St. Acheul
and the establishment at Montrouge formed the
head-quarters of the pious fathers in France, the
central points whence they spread their nets all over
the country. In this village (Montrouge), which is
about a league distant from the French metropolis,
Pater Coulon had, at the instruction of his order, pur
chased in his own and his brother s name, in 1814, a
small dwelling, a common country house, which had
been visited in the summer months by the paters of
the Post-street, in Paris, for the sake of recreation
and change of air. By the liberality of Count
158 MONTROUGE THE RESORT OF THE GREAT.
Montmorency and other wealthy friends of the order,
this modest little country seat became after a few
years one of the finest ever possessed by the Jesuits
in France. Its magnificent gardens, shadowy lanes,
and the tasteful and luxurious arrangements of the
whole establishment, made it one of the most attrac
tive residences in the kingdom. In 1818, they had
erected there their chief noviciate for France, the
abode being well calculated to please, during the
time of probation, the sons of high and wealthy
families. Montrouge having moreover been selected
as the summer residence of the provincial of France,
it also became the usual rendezvous of a great
number of grandees, the friends and patrons of the
Loyolites. Neither was it less frequented by those
who were fond of good cheer. Many bishops, dukes,
counts, ambassadors, deputies and high statesmen
were seen more frequently at the refectory at Mont-
rouge than even at court ; indeed, these pilgrimages
belonged at that time to the haut ton of distin
guished society in the metropolis.
A remarkable instance of the activity of the Je
suits during the French Restoration, was the great
number of their home missionaries. To meet the
JESUIT MISSIONARIES. 159
want of priests which had been felt in the provinces
after the fall of Napoleon, Louis XVIII. had allowed
(September, 1816) missionary sermons (or sermons
by missionaries) to be held in the various churches.
No ecclesiastical order made more and better use
of that privilege than that of St. Ignatius. They
found in these so-called missions the best means
of taxing the people in favour of their political and
financial purposes. Already, in 1818, this Jesuitical
mission-farce had taken a wide field in France, and
it might not unreasonably be nicknamed a parody of
the Revolution. It was a parody, in which the Je
suit cowl had replaced the red cap, in which dema
gogues had ascended the pulpit instead of the tri
bune, in which fanaticism played the part of en
thusiasm, while ambition and covetousness of monk
ish faction were endeavouring to agitate the masses
against the existing order of things. The par
ticular object these missionary preachers had in
view, was not to lead back the people to the old
dogmas of the Catholic church, nor to lower the
lay- clergy in public opinion, but solely and ex
clusively to keep up the agitation against the na
tional charter, and deprecate the principles of
160 PRAYER-BOOK OF THE MISSIONARIES.
modern times and their representatives. Even in
the printed forms of prayer which they distributed
during their stay in the large towns, to the church
frequenters, the following passage occurs : ( May God
have pity with the French people, and give them
back that liberty which they have thrown away to
follow a deceptive phantom of imaginary freedom, or
rather a licentious course of frivolity." What that
lost liberty consisted in, is explained by the sequel
of the prayer, which said : " May Heaven pardon
the French their crimes and wickedness which are
committed throughout the unhappy country. They
rob the churches, cloisters, and religious institutions
of their ornaments and wealth; they have killed
and dispersed the male and female servants of the
church, the shepherds whom the Holy Ghost has given
to the sheep, and they have replaced them by un
worthy mercenaries, ambitious hypocrites, and rapa
cious wolves. They indulge, in short, in all sorts of
wrongs towards the most trustworthy of all shepherds,
the monastic orders." Lafayette, Benjamin Con
stant, Foy, Manuel, and the other leaders of the
liberal party, were stigmatised by these missionary
preachers as arch-scoundrels and outcasts, of whom
PARTIALITY FOR TRADE AND TRAFFIC. 161
nothing less was to be expected than to see them
shortly decree a Bartholomew night for all the
priests in France.
It is well known that the Jesuits were at all times
given to mercantile speculations, and that by their
smuggling goods to and from Spanish America, and
their fraudulent bankruptcies in France and the
West Indies, they had greatly contributed to raise the
popular storm against themselves towards the middle
of the last century, which finished by the suppression
of the order in 1773. Even in that respect the
modern Loyolites have followed the footsteps of their
predecessors. In the same way as they were known
at Vienna to speculate largely in the stocks and other
money transactions, in like manner were they sus
pected in France, during the Restoration, of dealing
largely in wines. Another branch of commerce
which they carried on, too openly to be doubted, was
the retail trade of the missionaries in the joys and
sufferings of the future world, as also in the hopes
and sorrows of the present. Mission and traffic
went hand in hand. Shops, stalls, and confessionals
had been established in and at the churches. A rich
supply of hymn books, missionary tracts, pamphlets,
162 TRAFFIC OF THE MISSIONARIES.
rosaries, crucifixes, medals, Agnus Dei, hearts, rings,
skulls, scapularies, images, &c., with which they
were provided, were recommended, offered, and sold,
at reasonable prices, to high and low, in towns and
villages, at stalls erected at the entrances of the
churches, in a spirit worthy of the best auctioneers in
the English metropolis. Though the worthy disciples
of Ignatius are usually more fond of dealing with
young than old women, in the agency traffic, however,
the elderly daughters of Eve were preferred to the
younger, probably because of their garrulous dispo
sition and love of bargaining. " Holla ! holla !
neighbour," cried one of these female agents to
another who had her arms so full of tracts and cru
cifixes that one of them fell to the ground, " Holla !
don t drag your bon Dieu } in the mud ! "
This retail traffic was carried on by the missionary
paters with all the candour and ease that belong to
the calling, and with all the chink and jingle apper
taining to the trade. The most experienced and
ablest town traveller could not better gloss up his
samples, and better recommend them against all
competition, than these missionary travellers. In a
regular catalogue and price current, printed and dis-
CONTENTS OF THEIR HYMNS. 163
tributed at Bayonne in 1819, of missionary books
sold at the stalls in the entrances of the cathedral
and St. Andrew s church, it is said : " At these
stalls are found many other curious and edifying
works, which promise to give the utmost satisfaction
to all devout souls. Good Christians of both sexes
cannot do better than to employ their money and
deposit it here, money being the source of all crimes.
Anxious souls had therefore better get rid of the
base metal. Important Notice Rosaries of glass
pearls which are sold in other places, though they
may also be sacred, do not enjoy the indulgencies
which his holiness the pope has granted to those on
these stalls/ We ought also to mention, that
the catechisms and other tracts offered for sale
contained the most bitter attacks upon the prin
ciples of the Gallican church, and the greatest mis
representations of the constitution and the laws of
France. Neither were their hymns and other sacred
songs, which had been adapted to the profane melo
dies from the times of the Revolution, free of these
abuses, while they contained besides, some very
obscene and revolting expressions.
Upon the people, and especially the female sex of
164 WOMEN, HOME, AND CHILDREN.
the lower classes, these Jesuit missionaries exercised
the most pernicious and poisoning influence. Do
mestic happiness was usually the first that disap
peared under the influence of their pestilential breath.
Hardly had the day dawned in a place after the ar
rival of the missionaries, than a large number of
women of all classes left their houses to be present at
the missionary sermons and exercises, which usually
commenced as early as five o clock in the morning,
in one of the churches, where, as in theatres when a
new play is announced, the crowd assembled a few
hours before the time appointed, in order to secure
good places. The care of the household and of the
children was left to the men, while the women nearly
spent the whole day at church, in all sorts of alter
nate religious processions and devotions. But few of
these devout creatures took the trouble of casting a
look at their own doors for a few moments, and if
they did so, it was merely to satisfy the cravings of
the stomach. This neglect of home duties was the
more felt in southern France, the head quarters of
the missions, where most of the minor trades are
carried on out of doors, and the household manage
ment is exclusively left to the care of the women. At
SUFFERINGS OF THE POOR CHILDREN. 165
Marseilles (1820) a woman locked in her two chil
dren, two and five years old, to go to the missionary
meeting. The youngest fell into the fender, and be
came a prey to the flames, while the mother was
perhaps at that moment confessing to the Jesuit
missionary of having committed a deadly sin by eat
ing an egg on a fast day. Frequently poor chil
dren were seen wandering about in the streets, cold
and hungry, sobbing for their mothers. " Where is
your mother, child?" "In the mission; in the
mission," was the crying reply !
A carpenter in Normandy had succeeded, after
many years toil and economy, to amass a small capi
tal of a few hundred francs, when a section of the
mission arrived at the place. The wife of the good
man, frightened by a sermon in which one of the
paters had sketched the torments of hell in the
blackest colours, hastened to the preacher to ask
him absolution of her sins. The latter declared that
her case was so bad that he could not do it under
six hundred francs. The frightened woman, to save
her soul from eternal perdition, did not hesitate for a
moment to obtain salvation by the hard savings of
her husband. She purloined the sum, and handed
166 TRUE SAD FACTS.
it to the priest. The carpenter having a few days
afterwards need of a little sum, hastened to the
drawer where it was kept, but found it gone. The
changed conduct of his wife and some other circum
stances awakened his suspicion as to the real thief,
and after some conversation with his wife, she ac
knowledged the truth. The exasperated carpenter,
without saying anything more to his helpmate, at
once repaired to the dwelling of the absolution
vender armed with two pistols. Wishing to speak
to him in private, he was shown into a back room,
where the carpenter, pistol in hand, demanded back
his six hundred francs, which were instantly returned
to him by the alarmed monk. The daughter of a
linendraper at Marseilles, a young girl of twenty-
three, had returned one day from the missionary
confessor in a very melancholy mood. The danger
of eternal damnation, with which she had been
threatened by the confessor, had made a deep impres
sion on her mind. The father, alarmed at the state of
his child, requested her to cease visiting the missionary.
" You are Satan," replied she, " away, begone ! "
Not long after, she was sent to a madhouse, where
she put an end to her existence by throwing her-
THE STAGE AGAINST THE MISSIONARIES. 167
self out of a window on the third story.* These
few traits will suffice to illustrate the fatal conse
quences of the influence which the Jesuit mis
sionaries exercised upon the female sex in parti
cular. As nothing was done by Government to check
the mischief done under the cloak of religion,
the people frequently did so of their own accord.
The stage, which is used in France, ever since the
days of Moliere, as the medium to combat the tricks,
abuses, and intrigues of priestcraft, was, at the time
we are speaking of, also made the arena against
the missionaries. Almost in every place where a
theatre existed, the people demanded the represen
tation of "Tartufle;" but as the local authorities
sometimes interfered with the general request, open
riots were often the result. Moreover, the very ap
pearance of these missionaries in a place, not un-
frequently led to disturbances, when they were
obliged to perform their religious exercises under the
protection of the police. Having arrived for the
* Zsclioklce, " Ucherlieferungen zur Geschiclite unserer
Zeit," pp. 25 48; Montglave and Ckalas, "Histoire des
Conspirations des Jesuites, &c.," p. 413; RocJie-Arnaud,
" Memoires," p. 86.
168 RIOTS AT BKEST.
first time (October, 1819) at Brest, the mission
aries were saluted with the cry, "Death to the
Jesuits ! " &c. They only escaped forcible expul
sion by voluntary retirement. Even in the suburbs
of Paris, where the paters first dared to make their
appearance (1820), before they presented themselves
(a year afterwards) within the walls of the French
metropolis, it was found necessary to protect them
from public insult and assault, on the scenes of
their activity, by large bodies of police, gendarmes,
dragoons, and even artillery. Their pious exercises
in the cathedral at Rouen, in March, 1826, were
regularly interrupted by crowds of people rushing
in with the cry, " Death to the Jesuits ! Death to
the missionaries ! " and it was necessary to clear
the church every time by the military, while the wo
men, who persevered in repairing to the church, were
hissed and hooted and even drawn back by main
force by groups of the assembled mob. The same
happened with the missionaries themselves. No
sooner was the crowd dispersed by the military at
one point than it rallied at another, and, despite the
persuasive harangues of the authorities to disperse,
the disturbances lasted for several days, until they
ASSOCIATION SYSTEM. 169
assumed such a serious character, that it was found
necessary to despatch an additional detachment of
soldiers to the place, to clear the streets and restore
order.
These missionary doings, however pernicious in
themselves, were far from being the greatest evils
brought upon France by the Jesuits, nor did they
even form one of the powerful vehicles of Jesuitical
operations. It was the congregation by which the
Jesuits became a real plague to the land, and at the
same time objects of popular hatred and persecution.
We look upon the congregation, that remarkable sys
tem of association in its most flourishing and exten
sive development, in which the Jesuits have always
been great masters ay, much greater even than
in their system of education as the true organ,
the grand secret of the immense influence which
they have for centuries exercised upon European
society. By means of that peculiar system, the
order of Loyola joined to the standing army of its
spiritual or real members, who were bound to live
according to the rules of their order, also an army
of secular volunteers, Jesuits in short coats or skirts
(a robe courte), who were not in the least disturbed
i
170 ENLISTING LAYMEN.
in their ordinary calling and trade, and of whom
nothing was required but that they should wear
certain sacred appendages as a sign of recognition,
say daily a short prayer, now and then participate
in the more heavy exercises of the church, and en
gage themselves by a simple vow for a certain time,
(in France, for instance, for the term of five years,)
to render all possible services to the order and obey
its instructions. In return, they were promised a
ready promotion of their worldly views and interests,
and absolution and indulgence of all sins and
transgressions. Neither were these promises empty
words incapable of realisation. The mighty and
widely ramified order of St. Ignatius was powerful
enough to procure by its interest far greater advan
tages to individuals, than could any other corpora
tion, fraternity, or even secular power. Hence the
great facility with which they acted upon all classes
of society, by holding out the seductive prospects of
ambition or pecuniary gain, according to the views
and the position of the individuals whom they wished
to enlist in their service. In recent times, in par
ticular, the success of the order rested chiefly on the
co-operation with its standing army (the real ton-
THE CONGREGATION FOUNDED IN 1801. 171
sured members) of the innumerable hosts of volun
teers, the Jesuits in short coats, who had been en
listed from all classes of the population. This was
not only the case in France alone, but also in all
countries where the disciples of Ignatius have been
permitted to settle and acquire power and wealth.
We shall dwell at some length upon this peculiar
branch of Jesuitical operation, because, having ob
tained in France its utmost development, it affords
the best historical clue for sketching its character
istic outlines.
Already, under the consulate, the work of associa
tion had, after a long interruption, been resumed by
the Jesuits. One of the " fathers of faith," Pater
Bourdier-Delpuits (of Auvergne), had in 1801
founded in Paris the " congregation of the holy Vir
gin," under which name a similar fraternity had
been established in France by the Jesuits in 1563,
under the sanction of the then Archbishop of Paris,
Cardinal de Belloy. The congregation founded at
the beginning of the present century counted mem
bers indiscriminately from all classes of society, and
chiefly served as a sort of receptacle of all elements
of discontent. It consisted of all persons who
i 2
172 VICISSITUDES OF THE CONGREGATION.
were displeased with the prevailing systems in " re
ligion" or politics. Notwithstanding that Napoleon
had decreed in 1804 the abolition of all ecclesiastical
orders, the " congregation of the holy Vigin " had
remained intact under the protection of the empress-
mother and Cardinal Fesch. Even after the peremp
tory suppression of the Jesuit order by the emperor
in 1810, the existence and the operations of the
" congregation " were but for a short time inter
rupted. The Abbe Philibert, afterwards Bishop of
Grenoble, soon re-united the dispersed members, and
the congregation " fostered a secret existence under
the guidance of the Abbe Legris-Duval until after
the fall of the empire in 1814.
With the restoration of the Bourbons the activity
of the " congregation " became much more extended.
The distinguished favour shown to the society by
the brother of Louis XVIII., Count Artois, and
his bigoted daughter-in-law, the duchess of Angou-
leme, even in the first week after their return to
Paris, soon stamped the " congregation " as a union
of the highest distinction in the fashionable world.
But the zeal which the union displayed in opposing
the national Charter and constitutional monarchy,
DIVISION OP THE UNION. 173
soon constituted it the central point of all ultra-
royal and ultra-montane agitations. Again, the very
comprehensive plan which the congregation had in
view the reconstruction of the sovereign and absolute
power of the church required a previous re-organisa
tion of its own society on a much "broader basis. It
was, indeed, to this latter work that the Loyolites ap
plied all their energies. The one large congrega
tion/ which had been composed indiscriminately of
all classes of society, was divided by Pater Ronsin,
their superior, into several sections for the different
classes of the population respectively. The presi
dency of the first section, which contained for its
members princes, dukes, counts, marquises, cardinals,
deputies, and prefects, was allotted to Pater Konsin ;
that of the higher and middle classes to Pater Yarin ;
that of the mechanics and military to Pater Roger,
while other Jesuits presided over the congregation of
the masses or the lowest classes, such as servants,
children, and even thieves and other criminals, for
whom the sly fathers had formed a congregation even
in the prison cells. All these congregations had been
christened by several names in connection with the
Catholic church. There were congregations for the
174 NAMES AND BUSINESS.
" diffusion of belief/ and for the " defence of the
Catholic religion," congregations of the " sacred
mysteries/ of the " holy sacrament/ of the " sacred
heart of Jesus/ of that of the Virgin, of the " sacred
rosary/ the " holy sepulchre/ of the " Saint Louis of
Gonzaga," of " Saint Joseph " and many others of a
similar character. They were divided in tens and
hundreds, and possessed leaders or superiors of both
sexes, women being also members of the congrega
tion. These leaders collected the weekly or monthly
subscriptions (labourers and servants paid one sou
weekly), which they handed over to the Jesuits, their
chiefs. In addition to these subscriptions, the
members on entering the congregation were obliged
to engage themselves by a. solemn oath to " promote
the great cause of God and the holy Virgin by all
possible means in their power." "When we consider
that the first division ultimately numbered above a
thousand members of the highest aristocratic
families, of whom the greater part were either
fanatics or blockheads, or probably both together,
and that many of them had allotted the greatest part
of their annual income, amounting to from sixty
thousand to one hundred thousand francs, to the
THE CONGREGATION AND GOVERNMENT. 175
service of the society, it will easily be conceived what
vast sums of money the Jesuits must have had at
their command in the metropolis, as also in the large
and middle towns of France. We are assured by a
very credible author (Roche- Arnaud) that in the first
years of the reign of Charles X. upwards of six
millions of individuals had belonged to the congre
gation, who, as a matter of course, stood at the
entire disposal of the order.
It was natural that the "congregation/ with
such means in hand, should ultimately exercise
influence also on the government of the country.
Indeed, it formed the soul of that privy council of
Louis XVIII., which possessed already, in 1820,
power enough to carry through the House or
Chambre, the famous or infamous three laws against
the press, individual liberty, and reform of the elec
tive system. The new order of things to which
these laws had paved the way, received its best sup
port in the succeeding year (15th December, 1821)
by the nomination of a ministry whose members
belonged to the " congregation," and who were
consequently Jesuits in the proper sense of the term.
Villele, Minister of Finance, and Corbiere, Minis-
176 INFLUENCE OF THE CONGREGATION.
ter of the Interior, were known to be amongst the
most zealous and truest members of the " congre
gation/ while the Duke of Montmorency, Minister
of Foreign Affairs, was even one of the chiefs of the
society. As members of the congregation, they were
in duty bound to fill all the subordinate places of
the administration with the creatures of the society,
or rather with Jesuits. And so they did ; M. Renne-
ville, who had shortly before left the Jesuit school
at St. Acheul, became Chief of the Cabinet-bureau;
Franchet, a congregationist, became Director of the
Police of the kingdom; and another, a certain De-
lavau, Prefect of the Police at Paris. The prefec
tures and subprefectures, the posts in the states
council and embassies, and, as a matter of course, the
episcopal chairs, were generally given to persons
recommended by the " congregation/ The ante
chambers of the Jesuit presidents, Ronsin and Jen-
nesseaux (the latter being Attorney- General of the
Province of France), were usually filled with courtiers
and supplicants for places, while the ministerial
offices swarmed with clerks taken from the con
gregation.
Great was, moreover, the supervision and vigilance
OFFICES FOR SERVANTS. 177
of the congregation over private and family life, by
other and different means. By the vast number of
offices established by it for the placing of clerks,
valets, tutors, nurses, chamber-maids, grooms, cooks,
&c., and at the head of which generally stood some
ladies of high rank, the congregation had the best
means of making sure of the services of the needy
classes. The families, moreover, who applied to such
offices for servants, &c., became thereby known to
the society as belonging to their friends, to whom
application might be made in necessary cases. But
the principal object gained by these offices was the
confession and confidential information given by the
individuals who had obtained places, reports by which
the members were enabled to become familiar with
all the secrets of family life, with all its wants and
foibles, with all its wishes and defects. Neither was
the establishment of a " marriage-office" neglected by
the society. Those who devoted themselves to its
services were sure to make rich marriages, as the
confession registers of the society always contained
full accounts of the desires and wants, strong and
weak sides, of all persons wishing to enter the bonds
of matrimony.
i3
178 THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE.
A nation, however, like the French, so full of life,
spirit, and sound sense, was upon the whole not
so easily to be deceived as the congregationists
imagined it to be. Though the number of those
who fell into their snares was very considerable, the
majority of the nation was not caught by their baits
and intrigues ; the majority, on the contrary, looked
with increased indignation at the workings of the
Jesuits, which had been directed against the spirit of
the age and the character of the present generation,
more especially since the accession of the bigoted
Charles X. In the last months of the reign of
Louis XVI1L, a motion had passed the Chambre des
Deputes for the restoration of ecclesiastical corpora
tions (i. e., the Jesuit order). It is true that the
motion was modified in the Chambre des Pairs, where
it was limited to convents alone ; no doubt, however,
remained on the public mind, that under the new
coming king the motion would be renewed and car
ried to its full extent. Nor was it less known that
Charles X. had at last ascended the throne with the
firm resolution of erasing from the Charter the pro
vision of religious freedom and toleration, a resolu
tion to which he had long before his accession been
THE NEWSPAPERS. 179
prompted by his Jesuit confessor, Janson, and the
leaders of the " congregation." The majority of the
people were consequently only waiting for an oppor
tunity to vent their feelings of hatred against the
order and the " congregation," while the pious fathers
were so blinded by success, that they themselves
furnished the people with that very opportunity.
Of all the Journals, the " Constitutional " and the
" Courrier Fran9ais " had particularly nettled the
Jesuit party by their strong and indefatigable leaders
against the toleration of the order in open violation
of the laws of the land. The Jesuit party, confi
dent of power and influence, had no hesitation in
bringing an action against the two papers. They
were accused (December, 1825) of spreading the
wildest religious anarchy, of attempts at subverting
the throne and existing order, and of contempt of the
church and her servants. The complainants there
fore requested that the court might decree the sus
pension of the two journals. The court, however, dis
missed the complaint after an able defence by Dupin
and Merilhou. The motives expressed by the court
for dismissing the complaint, furnished the oppo
nents of the Jesuits with far more ready weapons for
180 SENTENCE OF THE COURT.
future attacks, than did the judgment itself. The
sentence was founded, the court argued, on the
grounds, that the articles complained of contained in
substance only attacks against the re-establishment
of ecclesiastical corporations, which are by law prohi
bited, as also against the ultra-montane doctrines
which had for some time been publicly preached and
taught by a portion of the French clergy, and which
were certainly calculated to put in jeopardy the
religious and civil liberty of the country. Paris was
filled with joy at the announcement of the sentence,
or rather at the protest of the judges against the
illegal partiality of government towards the
Jesuits. Baron Seguier, the president of the
Court of Appeal, became the most popular per
sonage in the metropolis, where a peculiar spirit of
activity now began to manifest and develope itself
against Jesuitism. The scandalous chronicles of the
machinations of the Loyolites, and the notorious
"Monita Secreta" were re-published in various forms.
The disputes between Jesuitism and Jansenism were
re- opened in print, while a new and cheap edition of
Moliere s " TartufFe" was issued from the press, and,
being sold at five sous the copy, more than 25,000
181
were disposed of within a few days. Nor was the
periodical press behind in its strictures on and
attacks of the Jesuitical order and its members, Of
all the literary publications on the subject, none was
more deeply felt by the Jesuits, or has inflicted
on them greater injury, than the celebrated pamph
let of Count Montlosier,* known as a staunch
royalist and zealous advocate of the aristocracy.
Having entered the lists against the Jesuits and the
congregation in 1825, in the periodical "Dra-
peau blanc," he published at Paris, in March 1826,
the above pamphlet, in which he showed by indis
putable facts, and in a clear and elegant style, the
great dangers that threatened the throne, altar, and
fatherland, by the toleration of the order. The effect
of that brochure, which, by the by, reached the eighth
(large) edition before the close of 1826, was still
more enhanced by the author having incurred thereby
the disgrace of government, who dismissed him from
his post in the ministry of foreign affairs, a cir
cumstance that stamped him in the eyes of the people
as a martyr for a popular cause. The next effect of
* "Memoire a consulter sur un Systeme religieux et poli-
tique, tendantarenverser la Religion, les Societe, et le Trone/
182 A STIR IN THE UPPER HOUSE.
that pamphlet was, that eighty of the most eminent
lawyers in Paris gave it as their impartial opinion,
and declared openly, that all unions and congre
gations which are not authorized by law, are punish
able by law ; that the re-introduction of the Jesuit
order in France, which had been abolished by the
statutes of the empire, is unconstitutional; and
that government ought therefore to be compelled
to dissolve all these interdicted unions, corpora
tions, societies, and orders. Montlosier thereupon
formally moved in the Court of Appeal for the
issue of such a decree, but as the Court declared its
incompetency to act in an affair which strictly be
longed to the Executive power or the supreme po
lice, Montlosier addressed a petition to the Chambre
des Pairs, which appointed a committee of inquiry
on the subject. The report of the committee (Jan.
1827) (composed by Count Portelais the younger),
showed the necessity of putting a stop to the illegal
existence of the Loyolites in France, and of refer
ring the petition to the President of the Cabinet,
with the request to remove the grievances com
plained of therein. Notwithstanding the opposition
of M. Frayssinous, Minister of Public Instruction,
DEFENCE FOR THE JESUITS. 183
and the Bishop of Hermopolis, as also of many other
friends of the order, the report was consented to
(19th Jan.) by 113 against 75 votes, chiefly owing to
the increasing displeasure and jealousy with which the
peers regarded the great attachment of the court to
the Jesuits and the congregation.
In the introductory part of the speech of Frays-
sinous in the Chambre des Pairs, in defence of the
pious fathers, he alluded to the fact, that for the last
two years the whole country was echoing the name
of the Jesuits ; that it would be much easier to find
people who are indifferent to religion and politics,
than to the society of Jesus. He spoke the truth,
though in a different sense. The Jesuit affairs had
indeed become so much the question of the day, that
every other question assumed a subordinate character
at the side of it ; that the most decided antagonists in
politics shook hands and forgot for awhile their party
spirit, in order to devise the best means of combating
the most dangerous enemy of civil and religious liberty,
the order of the Jesuits. Nay, the very admission
made by the Minister of Public Instruction, that the
order did actually exist in France, and the extravagant
praises which he lavished in the course of his speech
184 THE MARTIGNAC MINISTRY.
upon its members, plainly snowed that the court
was then more than ever busy with the re-establish
ment of the order in due and legal form, and that
such would of a certainty ere long happen if the
country did not protest against it in the most deci
sive manner. Later revelations have satisfactorily
proved that the suspicion was well founded. Instead
of taking into serious consideration the decision of
the upper House, government defied public opinion
to such a degree as to cause Charles X. to undergo
the most humiliating treatment at a review of the
Parisian national guard which he held (29th April,
1827), when he was incessantly greeted by the latter
and the assembled crowd with the cry, "Down with
the ministers ! Down with the Jesuits ! "
Viscount Martignac, successor of Villele (1828),
justified the expectations of the nation, that he would
adopt measures against the machinations of the
Jesuits. He named Count Portalis (the reporter of
the above petition in the upper house) Minister of
Justice, and M. Vatimesnil (a decided enemy of the
Jesuits) Minister of Public Instruction, while he
removed from all the higher places of the adminis
tration, and more especially from the police, all the
185
functionaries who were known to be friends of the
Jesuits and the congregation. Having completed his
preliminary arrangements, Martignac issued (16th
June, 1828) those famous decrees by which the eight
Jesuit colleges at Aix, Billom, Bordeaux, Dole,
Forcalquier, Montmorillon, St. Acheul, and St. Anne
d Auray, which had existed under the feigned name
" small seminaries," were to be suppressed, or rather
transferred to the control and supervision of the uni
versity, by the 1st of October of that year. He
further decreed, that no president or teacher should
be appointed in these seminaries without a previous
written assurance on their part, that they do not
belong to any of the religious societies prohibited by
law. Also the number of the real " small seminaries "
and their pupils was greatly diminished, and a better
discipline and more adequate principles introduced in
the establishments. It had cost Martignac immense
trouble to induce the bigoted monarch to assent to
these measures as a voluntary but indispensable con
cession to public opinion in France. Charles X. is
said to have gnawed to pieces the pen with which
he signed the concessions, and to have declared
loudly, that these signatures had caused him the
186 THE ANGRY PRELATES.
bitterest agonies and regrets that they had brought
him in direct contradiction with his own conscience
and his truest servants. The immense joy through
out the country at the publication of those measures
were only equalled, if not even surpassed by the
rage of the Jesuits, the congregationists, and the
whole episcopate. The latter, headed by the Car
dinal-Bishop of Toulouse, the Duke of Clermont-
Tonnere, raised a vehement opposition to those
decrees, which the duke denounced as a flagrant
encroachment on his rights, as a triumph of the
revolution, and as the work of Satan. Who knows
to what extremes this "Fronde of the vestry" as
the papers called them, had not proceeded in the
excess of passion, if Rome, more wise, cautious, and
sharp-sighted than the blinded prelates, had not
interfered in the matter at the request of Martignac ?
The declaration of Pope Leo XII., that " he saw in
those decrees no violation of the episcopal rights, and
that he did not therefore think himself justified in
forcing upon France, ecclesiastical societies which had
been expelled by the laws of the land," had the
desired effect of silencing the bishops, and partially
removing the Loyolites from the country. The latter,
PLAN TO REMOVE MARTIGNAC. 187
not willing to hand over the control of their eight
colleges with more than 3000 pupils to the university,
preferred closing them altogether, and removed with
a considerable number of their late pupils to the
neighbouring Switzerland, and across the Pyrenees.
The joy of the French was however somewhat di
minished by the news, that the compliance with the
abolition decree had only been limited to one portion
of the Jesuit establishments. Those which were not
expressly named in the ordinances continued to
exist under the secret protection of the bishops,
Martignac having, to spare the feelings of the mo
narch and his court, thought proper not to enforce
the strict compliance with the decrees in that
respect. What chiefly alarmed the patriots of France
was, the knowledge that the influence of the Loyol-
ites and the congregation had remained unabated
upon the king and his court, and that they (the
Loyolites) were working with visible success to bring
about the fall of the Martignac ministry. To fa
cilitate their endeavours with the monarch, the Je
suits worked upon his sympathy, and suggested to
him the expediency of replacing Martignac by prince
Polignac, the supposed illegitimate son of Charles X.
188 THE REVOLUTION OF 1830.
The latter readily approved of the suggestion, and
in August, 1829, Polignac was called to the head
of the Administration. This event, as may be sup
posed, was hailed by the Jesuits and the congrega-
tionists as a great victory of principle, the Polig
nac ministry being the most priest-ridden and
aristocratic cabinet that existed in France ever
since the restoration of the Bourbons. Hardly had
the news reached the Loyolites abroad, than they
made preparations to return to France and retake
possession of their forsaken establishments. Large
numbers of them arrived at the French frontier from
Italy, in anticipation of the speedy abolition of the
decree of June, 1828, in which anticipation they were
justified by the nomination of the Jesuit pupil Guer-
non de Eanville, nicknamed the " Messiah of the
Congregation," as Minister of Public Instruction
(Nov. 1829).
Who knows to what extent the mischief might
not have been carried, if the revolution of 1830
had not put a speedy end to the whole fabric of
iniquity. It has been proved beyond doubt, that
the elder Bourbons owed their fall chiefly to their
devotion to the Jesuit party and" their pernicious
LOUIS PHILIPPE. 189
counsels. Charles X. and his son, the weak-minded
Duke of Angouleme, were nearly brought by the
Jesuit Janson, the royal confessor, and the two
other heads of the clerical party (the papal nuncio,
Lambruschini and Cardinal Latil), to a state of
quasi-msamty, in which they thought themselves
bound in the name of religion, and for the salva
tion of their own souls, to sign, in violation of the
constitutional charter, those July ordinances which
cost them the throne and dynasty.*
The storm of the July revolution had scared away
the sons of St. Ignatius from the French soil, while
some of their establishments, and especially at St.
Acheul and Montrouge, were even plundered and
demolished by the exasperated masses. At the de
molition of the latter institution, a printed register
was found, which showed that the order counted at
the beginning of 1830, in France, 149 priests, 163
school-divines, and 124 coadjutors, making a total of
436 members. An ordinance of Louis Philippe
annulled (1831) the decree of 1816 for the admission
of missions in France, which were henceforth pro-
* "Causes secretes de la reformation d Etat en France,
1830."
190 THE JESUITS AGAIX.
hibited. In November, 1831, the new Minister of
Public Instruction issued a circular to the trustees of
all the higher schools in the realm, in which the
bishops and archbishops were earnestly enjoined to
comply strictly with the decree of 1828 respecting
the ee small seminaries/ and more especially with the
provision requiring a written declaration by all
teachers, that they do not belong to any prohibited
religious society.
We see that Louis Philippe was at first firmly
resolved to guard France against the Jesuit pest,
though it is also well known, on the other hand, that
the pious fathers had left the country for only a short
time. No sooner, indeed, was the first alarm over,
than they began to steal in gradually and cautiously.
A few of them who had been recognised (Pater
Druilhet at Bordeaux in 1832, and Pater Besnoin
at Tours) had been put in prison, but as there was
no particular charge laid against them, they were
discharged, with the advice to depart immediately
from France. Druilhet repaired (May, 1833) in com
pany of his colleague, Deplace, to Prague, to under
take, at the earnest request of Charles X., the
education of his grandson, the Duke de Bordeaux.
INDULGENCE TOWARDS THE JESUITS. 191
The dethroned king was, however, by the representa
tions of his friends, dissuaded from the step, lest it
might prejudice the prince in the eyes of the French,
should it become known that he had been educated
by Jesuits. The two fathers were accordingly dis
missed in November, 1833.
What encouraged the Loyolites to return, though
clandestinely, so shortly after the revolution, was the
certainty that they possessed in the Queen Maria
Amelia a staunch patron and friend ; nor is it impro
bable that it was owing to the interference of that
bigoted princess, that Government took no notice of
their presence in France, a fact that must have been
known to the Government, as is evident from the
conversation of Thiers with the provincial pater
Renault (1833) concerning the above-mentioned cir
cumstance of the intended education of the Duke de
Bordeaux. The ordinances of 1828 were soon, under
such circumstances, rendered nugatory (despite their
renewal in 1831), in open violation of the decree, when
many bishops did not scruple to employ stealthily
Jesuit teachers in their seminaries. There can be no
doubt, however, that the indulgence shown by govern
ment towards the Jesuits was in part also owing to
192 IGNORANCE OF THE SPIRIT OF JESUITISM.
the desire of Louis Philippe to reconcile the episcopate
with the July revolution, while the paters themselves
facilitated that indulgence by having acted upon the
advice of Pater Roothaan in Rome, who told them
not to live under one roof as an incorporated body,
but to reside dispersed as simple assistant priests in
the various dioceses, and to avoid generally all
appearances of show and ostentation, by which the
suspicions of the people might again be roused to
their destruction. In this manner their reappearance,
when it was at last discovered, gave so little alarm to
the public, that it was not even found necessary to
insert in the parliamentary enactment (1837) about
national instruction, a clause against the re- engage
ment of Jesuit teachers in the national schools. The
Reporter of that enactment, St. Marc Girardin,
expressed himself on the subject, amidst loud cheer
ing of all parties, as follows : " What ! Are we now
to fear the Jesuits? How, with our institutions,
with this tribune, with our two chambers! How,
with the philosophical arsenal of our libraries, are
you afraid of the Jesuits? No, let us not lower
ourselves so deep in the eyes of Europe ! " &c. It
was owing to this fatal ignorance of the spirit of
CONCESSIONS TO THE CLERGY. 193
Jesuitism, which is proof against philosophical
arsenals and parliamentary tribunes, that, ten years
after the July revolution, there were in France
more Jesuits than before 1830, an official return
having shown that on the 1st of January, 1841, the
number of the Jesuits in the two provinces, France
and Lyons alone, was 581.
Already, before 1837, the Loyolites had ventured
to emerge gradually from the obscurity in which they
had sought refuge in the first few years after the
revolution. They were not a little encouraged to
that step by the great concessions made by Louis
Philippe in all matters connected with the church and
religion, in order to reconcile the French clergy to
his own dynasty. These concessions, however, not
only tended to increase the arrogance of the higher
clergy, but proved also of great advantage to their
protegees, the disciples of St. Ignatius, who best
know how to profit by the foibles of those in power.
In 1838 the Bishop of Clarmont had refused Christian
burial to the afore-mentioned Count Montlosier, be
cause he had not consented to recall the irreligious
sentiments expressed in his writings, and more
especially in his " Memoire a Consulter." Not-
194 XAVER DE RAVIGNAN.
withstanding public indignation, and the eloquent
speech of Victor Cousin in the House of Peers, in
which he dwelt on the scandalous conduct of the
bishop and the necessity of Government interfering in
the matter, the only notice the latter took of the
affair was simply to signify its disapproval of the
conduct of the bishop. In the same year (1838) the
Jesuits even ventured to re-open their missions at
Rheims. As the authorities seemed disinclined to
enforce the law, serious disturbances took place
(December, 1838), when the parsonage and the St.
Jacques church were demolished by the mob, while
the missionaries escaped with their lives from the
popular fury, with great difficulty.
Some time afterwards, the Jesuits made preparations
for organizing themselves under their real name in
the French metropolis. They began by presenting
themselves in their most captivating and dazzling
capacities. Before any symptom was perceivable of
their existence and operations, a preacher of their
order, Xaver of Ravignan (previously a proxy of the
Attorney- General at Paris, and afterwards a member
of the order), filled the capital and the whole of
France with admiration of his brilliant and edifying
POPULARITY OF A JESUIT. 195
extempore sermons. True and dazzling talent is sure
to win the French public, and inspire it, if not with
conviction, at least with a respect bordering on enthu
siasm. Thus, even after it had become known that
Ravignan was a Jesuit, the public admiration and
attendance by no means diminished ; the little
defect was overlooked on account of his preponder
ating talents, and, as it was thought, convincing in
spiration. At first, his sly brethren did not acknow
ledge him as one of the fraternity; but after his
having secured a triumphant position in society, they
had no hesitation in announcing his creed and order.
People certainly regretted that such a man should
ever be a member of such a disreputable society ; but
it was considered in him a foible rather than a crime,
a misfortune to be pitied rather than punished : there
were in short all sorts of charitable excuses made in
his favour, and his popularity did not in the least
suffer by the discovery. A Jesuit had thus managed
to become an object of fashion ! What immense gain
for the order ! To become a man of fashion in the
fashionable metropolis of the fashionable world, was
indeed something worth striving after. It was now
possible for the members to settle gradually in France
K 2
196 DEATH OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS.
under the shadow of his popularity; it was indeed
now the people who had granted absolution to the
Jesuits !
About that time Louis Philippe had lost his first
born son, the Duke of Orleans (13th July, 1842), by
a fall from his carriage. The affliction of the mother
was deep and lasting, and the Jesuits were not slow
in profiting by the mishap. Even the marriage of
the duke (1837) with a protestant princess had pre
viously given offence to the clergy of the orthodox
church, while confessors and other monks had tried
to inspire the bigoted queen with religious scruples
about that union. After the death of the prince, it
was not very difficult to persuade the afflicted mother
that his death was a retribution from Heaven for
the sin committed by the wicked marriage, that the
queen was herself guilty before the Lord for having
given her consent to the union, and that the de
ceased would be condemned to hard sufferings in
purgatory, if he was not ransomed by his surviving
relations by extraordinary works of piety and re
pentance, and among others the conversion of the
unhappy young widow, as also the re-establishment
of the order of Jesus within her dominions a thing
197
so much desired by the holy father and all truly
pious Catholics,, &c. These exhortations fell upon a
very susceptible soil, a bigoted and afflicted heart.
It is true, that in all matters of public affairs the
queen s influence upon Louis Philippe was not
only insignificant but even more than counter
balanced by that of his philosophical sister, Madame
Adelaide. Yet was the king though he made no
secret of his sentiments, that he believed more in
Voltaire than in all the popes and bishops taken
together from political motives inclined to grant the
wishes of his spouse. There could be no doubt that
his dynasty had lost, in the very popular crown-
prince, one of its strongest pillars, and that a regency
with the unpopular Duke of Nemours at its head,
would be only resting upon a very weak foundation.
Louis Philippe therefore looked about in all directions
to secure any support likely to prove beneficial to his
house, no matter from what quarter it came. He
thought, that the support from the clergy afforded
him the most solid security for his dynasty, unde
niable symptoms of piety and religion having mani
fested themselves more than ever among the French
people at large. He was therefore resolved to enlist
198 SCHOOLS AND THE UNIVERSITY.
the church in his favour, and use her, in the spirit of
many potentates of our day, as a mere machine and
organ for his government. But he was also aware,
on the other hand, that he could only by means of
considerable concessions bribe the clergy in favour of
his dynasty, and he therefore began the work of con
ciliation by the greatest favour he could bestow on
them the re-introduction of the order into his do
minions. We thus see, that the death of the Duke
of Orleans was an eventful occurrence even for the
church. With the acuteness and sure instinct so pecu
liar to the Catholic clergy, and the Loyolites in par
ticular, they were not slow in perceiving the brilliant
prospects that had been opened to them by the tra
gical end of the prince. The bishops accordingly re
newed in the same year the great struggle about the
re-admission of the Jesuits into France, which they
disguised in the cry for liberty of education and the
right of parents to choose for themselves teachers for
their children. In France, public or national in
struction had stood, since 1808, under the exclusive
control and guidance of the university, an imperial
decree of the 17th March of that year having passed
that no schools of any description should be established
LIBERTY IN EDUCATION. 199
or opened in the empire without the permission of the
university of France ; and further, that no one should
profess to teach in such schools without being a
member and graduate of the university. Only the
great theological and episcopal seminaries formed an
exception ; they had been pronounced exempt from
the above restrictions. In the national Charter or
Constitution of 1830, these restrictions had been
removed by the Legislature in its over-zeal to apply
freedom and liberty to all branches of social life.
The sad effects which liberty in education has
wrought in Belgium, soon convinced the French
government of the blunder they had committed in
allowing that pernicious latitude also in France ; and
the consequence was, that it was deemed prudent
not to bring the law concerning uncontrolled educa
tion into practical force, but to let it remain a dead
letter, a mere theory in the statutes of the land, to
be acted upon at some future period when called for
by circumstances. The Loyolites, however, had for
a long series of years endeavoured to convince or
persuade the higher clergy, that the university, and
the organization of public instruction emanating from
it, were monstrous evils, that the sole aim and object
200 THE CHURCH AND THE UNIVERSITY.
of that institution was the annihilation of the Ca
tholic religion, the destruction of the church, and
the abolition of priesthood. The bishops, in conse
quence, under a show of right, only claimed the exe
cution of the law in favour of unrestricted education,
by which they morally meant, the permission to be
granted to the Loyolites to act as teachers, and as
a matter of course to establish their own schools
and colleges for the education of the French youth.
Nor were the bishops less prompted to the step by
their personal dislike to the university and its pre
rogatives, which they thought savoured too much
of revolutionary innovations, and were incompati
ble with the spirit of the restored aristocracy to
which they themselves belonged. Tt was, however,
only in 1842 that they took courage to bring
forward their complaint in proper form. They de
manded,, in plain terms, unrestricted liberty in edu
cation, to allow every religious order, every clerical
fraternity, and in general every individual who felt
a desire and calling for the profession, to establish
schools of their own for the instruction of youth.
With this claim, a war of life and death was declared
against the university.
201
We have seen, in the first pages of the present
history, that, a century previously, Berzozowski the
Jesuit- General had found it perfectly right and rea
sonable, that in Catholic Russia everything that
touched upon public instruction should be left to the
control and supervision of the state ; that also in
Sardinia the same arrangements had prevailed as in
France, the universities of Turin and Genoa having
had, in the name of the state, the control over all
the minor educational establishments in the country.
But as the university of France did not think proper
to bow under the yoke of the Loyolites, after the
manner of the universities in Sardinia, it was decried
as an institution working the ruin of religion and
morality, and as an establishment full of wickedness
and iniquity.
It need hardly be mentioned, that the disciples of
St. Ignatius formed the avant-guard in the furious
combat which was now raging between the univer
sity and the French episcopate. The Loyolites used
here their most dexterous weapons scandal, ca
lumny, slander, and perversion of truth with a
specimen of which we will treat the reader. The
Jesuit, Desgarets, canon at Lyons, published in May,
K3
202 PAMPHLETS AGAINST THE UNIVERSITY.
1843, a book under the title, "Le Monopole Uni-
versitaire," in which, he pointed to the immediate
and palpable effects of the university education ; they
were, he said, suicide, parricide, homicide, infanticide,
duel, violation, burglary, seduction, incest, adultery
and the most refined debauchery, theft, plunder,
prodigality, unjust claims, perjury and calumny,
transgression of all laws, communism both as re
gards property and women, insurrection, tyranny,
revolution, and murder. Still more passionate and
absurd, if possible, were the expressions of Theodor
Cambalot (an apostolic missionary) in his " Memoire
adresse aux eveques de France at aux peres de
famine." Secular instruction is, with him, an en
croachment on the rights of the church, an insult
to God, and a wrong to society. He thinks, that the
clergy alone are able to educate and rear the man
and the Christian, the citizen and the Catholic ; but
as the work of education is too extensive and la
borious for the lay clergy, assistance ought to be
had from the religious bodies, such as Jesuits, Re-
demptorists, Dominicans, Franciscans, &c., which
orders ought on that account to be restored in
France. This pamphlet of Cambalot contains,
APOLOGY FOR THE JESUITS. 203
besides, gross insults upon the university and the
government ; it summoned, moreover, the episcopate,
to excommunicate that and all similar secular esta
blishments, and even to refuse to their pupils the
communion and the sacrament. Government having
pronounced the pamphlet a libel, its circulation
was prohibited and the author legally prosecuted
(January, 1844). He was found guilty, and con
demned to fourteen days imprisonment and four
thousand francs fine. The Bishops of Valence and
Chalois, however, were not intimidated by that
sentence. They showered praises and laudations on
the condemned in all papers and periodicals at their
command ; they extolled his merits in the cause of
the Catholic Church, and took, upon the whole, a
very lively part in the violent contest.
Among the extravagant tirades of a Desgarets,
Cambalot, and others of the clique, who, instead of
profiting, rather damaged their cause by indulging in
perverted facts and in low personalities, a pamphlet
published at the beginning of 1844, by the afore
mentioned Pater Kavignan, produced great sensation
in the metropolis, and wrought, at least for a time,
an advantageous influence upon the public mind in
204 NUMBER OF JESUITS IN FRANCE.
behalf of the Jesuits. It bore the title, De 1 exist-
ence et de Tinstitut des Jesuites," and contained an
apology for the Jesuits. Never had the cause of the
Loyolites been conducted with such adroitness, in
such overpowering language, with such dazzling so
phistry, with such seductive dignity, and with such
an appearance of deep earnest conviction, as were
displayed in this pamphlet with its simple title. But
the greatest practical significance was given to
Ravignan s open manifest in which he demanded,
amongt other things, a revision of the statutes,
and of the moral and material rehabilation of the
order by his own confession that he was himself a
Jesuit, and that there were 206 Jesuit priests living
in France. The number of the Jesuits here stated is
both correct and incorrect. In speaking of the
number existing in France, Ravignan meant the
province France; but with a mental reservation
natural to the order, he led the public to believe
that it was the whole of France, the kingdom of
France, that numbered only 206 members of the
order ; but in point of fact, their number in the whole
monarchy was at that time 825. Another equivoca
tion lies in the term Jesuit-priests, there being a
GOVERNMENT FAVOURS THE ORDER. 205
number of the members who lived dispersed in the
country without being priests in the strict meaning
of the word.
At all events, the published avowal made by Ra-
vignan that there were above 200 Jesuits living upon
the French soil, was a bold and clear manifestation
of the contempt in which he held the laws of the
land, which ordered the banishment of the Jesuits.
It is also a proof, that the Jesuits must then have felt
so entirely safe and secure, so entirely confident of
the favour of the authorities, as to dare to admit their
existence in France, instead of endeavouring to with
draw that fact from public notice, as they did pre
vious to that time. Neither did the authorities take
any notice of that confession, and the partiality of
government for the order was still more evident from
the dismissal of Michelet and Quinet, the two
greatest champions of the university. The Jesuits
now delayed no longer to make the best use of the
but ill-disguised favour of government. They founded
a considerable number of noviciates and other estab
lishments, though they thought it prudent to proceed
with great caution and circumspection. Ever since
the commencement of the dispute between the epis-
206 AFFILIATED SOCIETIES.
copate and the university, and more especially after
the brilliant success with which the above professors
(Michelet and Quinet) had taken up the gauntlet for
the university, the attention of the liberal press had
particularly been turned to the pious fathers, the
Loyolites. The Jesuit question became the question
of the day, and was incessantly treated, in various
forms, in an infinite number of works, pamphlets,
periodicals, and journals. The Jesuits perceiving
their steps watched with Argus eyes, thought it pro
per not to be too rash in their movements ; and so
effectually did they indeed conceal their proceedings,
that neither the number of their institutions, nor the
full extent of their operations, were exactly known to
the public and the authorities. The public at large
only knew of their establishments at Paris, Lyons,
and a few other places, and but few suspected that
the paters possessed a considerable number (twenty-
five) noviciates also in Elsass, Picardy, and some pro
vinces in the interior of France. As Monrouge and
St. Acheul during the restoration, so did, in the latter
times of Louis Philippe, their establishment in the
Post-street at Paris, form the focus of their operations.
The order also now possessed a great number of
SURREPTITIOUS LEGACIES. 207
affiliated societies, which under various names of
( brothers so and so/ and " sisters so and so/ were
actively employed for the order. Their income from
alms, legacies and donations, was more than sufficient
to keep up all these establishments in France, even
in superfluous elegance. The " sisters of mercy/ and
of the " holy heart of Jesus/ were particularly useful
to the Jesuits in their task of collecting alms from
the pious population; but legacies which they obtained
surreptitiously an art in which the Jesuits always
excelled * proved an inexhaustible source of income
to the order also in France. Indeed, there is hardly
a country in Europe where private legitimate interests
are more injured by that branch of Jesuit activity
than in France, and no wonder that Eugene Sue s
"Wandering Jew" has produced such an astonishing
effect upon French society. The outlines in that
admirable novel of the surreptitious way in which
the Jesuits obtain large legacies, are upon the whole
quite correct, though the details may be a little
* The words in our Litany, "Deliver us from sudden
death" may perhaps have been introduced by the crafty
monks, in order not to be deprived of the opportunity of per
suading the dying from remembering the church in their will.
208 INSTITUTION FOR SERVANT GIRLS.
overdrawn by fictitious tints. As the existence of
the Jesuits in France was in fact illegal, the fathers
used the precaution to draw up the legacies and
donations in favour of some private individuals con
nected with the order, who in their turn made them
over to their own friends before delivering them up
to the order, so that the latter received these gifts as
it were from third and fourth hands, to avoid all
suspicion and legal objections.
But it was not by these means alone, that the
French Loyolites endeavoured to satisfy their crav
ing for gold. We may safely say, that at no time
and in no country has the order manifested more
avarice and greediness for money and property than
in recent times in France, where even the high
state functionaries during the reign of Louis Philippe
were not free from the infection. The pious fathers
speculated largely in goods manufactured by the
inmates of the religious and charitable institutions
which they had established in vast numbers under
various names in different parts of the country.
With the assistance and under the control of the
" sisters of the holy heart of Jesus," of the " good
Shepherd," and other similar societies closely con-
JESUIT MANUFACTORIES. 209
nected with the order, the Loyolites had managed to
create, among others, also congregations after the
model of convents, for girls of all classes of society,
as also to establish charitable institutions or homes
for female servants out of employment. This latter
institution was nothing more nor less than a crafty
way of taxing the hard labour of the poor under
that specious title. All the girls who entered that
charitable establishment were obliged to work in
all sorts of manufactures from morning to night,
in return for the scanty food they received there.
The pater-manufacturers were thus enabled to bring
to market their own goods at a much cheaper
price than could the lay manufacturers, who had to
pay regular wages to their labourers, while the mer
chant, who served as the commission agent for these
convent manufactures, (which, by-the-by, were ex
empt from duties of any sort,) became the most dan
gerous competitor in the market. The consequence
was, a number of failures and bankruptcies, the re
sult of those religious and philanthropic competitions.
At Lyons, St. Etienne, and other manufacturing
places, the wages of the factory girls had, in conse
quence of competition, been so reduced that they
210 INCAUTIOUS CONDUCT OF THE JESUITS.
were obliged to foster existence in another less vir
tuous way.
This bloodsucking avarice of the Jesuits, this
encroachment upon the economy of society, in addi
tion to the share they took in the disputes between
the episcopate and the university, and the unge
nerous weapons they made use of in that bitter
contest all this, and a great many more grievances,
had greatly exasperated the people, and brought down
upon their head the severest philippics from the press,
which did its best to fan the public wrath against
those outlawed intruders. The sly fathers must have
been quite blind to the dangers that threatened them
at that period, or they would certainly not have
engaged in the notorious law suit (1845) against one
of their cashiers, a certain Affnaer. By this law suit,
the fact of the existence and organisation of the order
in France became legally established, while the public
was treated with an insight into the mercantile
affairs of the Jesuits. It was no longer possible for
government passively to ignore the existence of the
members in France; nor were the friends of the
fathers less incautious, in their adopting measures by
which they forced upon the Legislature the duty of
THE BISHOPS DEFY GOVERNMENT. 211
ordering proper inquiry to be made into the subject.
At a meeting held at Marseilles by the zealous
friends of the Jesuits, it had been resolved to petition
the Upper House to prohibit the popular lectures of
the professors, Michelet and Quinet. In the sharp
discussion to which the petition gave rise in the
House, Cousin, in attacking most bitterly the order
of St. Ignatius, also pointed to the illegal indulgence
shown by government to the members. Thiers and
Dupin having given a true and energetic exposition
of the law against the Loyolites, the Chambre des
Deputes voted almost unanimously on the following
day (3rd May, 1845), that a requisition should be
made to government or the executive power to put in
immediate force the law existing against the tolera
tion of the Jesuits in France. Even at this last and
hopeless stage, the bishops did not relent in their
exertions in behalf of their protegees and friends.
Several of them addressed the Minister of Public
Instruction soon after the decision of the House, in
terms of scorn and defiance: they were resolved,
they said, to harbour the Jesuits in their own
palaces, should they be driven out of their houses
and establishments; and they dared the police to
212
show themselves within the walls of their sacred
abodes. In an epistle addressed direct to the king,
Prilly, Bishop of Chalons, declared in his own name,
and the names of many of his colleagues, that te the
cause of the Jesuits is clearly the cause of the whole
church, and consequently also theirs ; we know very
well, he said, that every word that is spoken against
the order, is a war-cry against ourselves."
Despite all these protestations and countermove-
ments, government had no alternative but to comply
with the requisition of the Legislature. But as a
direct and strict execution of the law would have
militated against the conduct of the court, and the
equivocal line of policy hitherto pursued by Louis
Philippe himself, it was thought advisable to com
promise the matter by persuading the Jesuits to
withdraw voluntarily from France. For this purpose,
Count Rossi, French ambassador at Rome, received
instructions to demand from the pope an order for
the voluntary withdrawal of the Jesuits from France.
It was well known that neither Pater Roothaan, the
Jesuit general, nor the congregation of cardinals, to
whom Gregory XVI. had left the arrangement of the
affair, were at all inclined to listen to the representa-
A FEW OF THE JESUITS LEAVE. 213
tions of the count. Twelve days afterwards, however
(5th July, 1845), the " Messager," (a ministerial
evening paper in Paris,) announced that the Jesuit
question had been satisfactorily settled at Rome.
This sudden readiness of the pope and the cardinals to
come to an amicable arrangement, was only owing to
the circumstance, that the French minister having
failed in his original demand, thought proper to bring
it afterwards under such a modified form, that
neither the pope nor Roothaan could see any objection
to it, since it secured to the Jesuits a far better posi
tion in France than before. It had been agreed, that
Pater R/oothaan should seemingly recall his subor
dinates from France, while the French Government
promised in return, to close temporarily only the
chief establishment of the Jesuits in the Post-street
at Paris, and a few others at Lyons, Avignon, and St.
Acheul, which were too well known to the public to
be tolerated, but to leave undisturbed the other less
notorious establishments, or at least to proceed against
them very leniently. This was the result of Count
Rossi s negotiations, which had been designated by
the ministerial press as a signal success and diplo
matic victory. Pater Roothaan could indeed have no
214 FALL OF THE BOURBONS.
hesitation to accept the concession, it being evident
that the order lost nothing by this momentary and
partial resignation, which, as it was voluntarily ten
dered, without any previous legal and formal decree
for expulsion or banishment, could only facilitate the
return and reappearance of the members after a while,
without drawing public attention to the fact. The
French people soon perceived the imposition practised
on them. Only a small portion of the pious fathers
left the country; the greatest part remained and
carried on their intrigues as before, though, perhaps,
with a little more circumspection. The diplomatic
deceit, as soon as it became known, only tended to
increase the popular hatred against the Jesuits, as
also the discontent of the country with the exist
ing government. But when Louis Philippe at last
thought proper to advocate the cause of the order also
in foreign countries, and to play the part of a cham
pion for the Jesuits in the civil war which had broken
out in Switzerland at their instigation, public opinion
in France had become so incensed at his conduct,
that the loss of his throne and dynasty (in February,
1848) was no doubt greatly accelerated by that cir
cumstance. The elder Bourbons lost their crown
SWITZERLAND. 215
because they took advice and counsel of the Jesuits,
while Louis Philippe hastened his own ruin because
he wanted to make an ambitious and sensitive
nation the train-bearers of Jesuitism.
Much occupied with more momentous considera
tions, called forth by the war with Russia, the atten
tion of the nation is for the present withdrawn from
the Jesuits and their doings, probably to be resumed
after the restoration of peace, when the religious
principles of the present emperor will assume a more
definite character, and decide the fate of the order in
a more positive manner.
THE JESUITS IN SWITZERLAND.
WE may safely assert, that no country in Europe
has in recent times experienced the pernicious effects
of Jesuitism in a higher degree than did the Helvetic
Confederation. Already, at the beginning of the
present century, the Jesuits had made the attempt
to re-establish themselves in Switzerland under the
name of Ligorians, and, strange to say, they suc
ceeded in the attempt first and foremost in that part
216 SETTLEMENT AT GRAUBUNDTEN.
of the confederation, at Graubiindten, where in past
times the works of the Loyolites were engraven in
sanguinary characters, in traits of blood throughout
the territory. The government of that youngest can
ton, where Protestants formed the majority of the
population, had granted in 1804 to several of the
Ligorians the permission to settle. In a short time
they contrived, by means of pompous service, general
confession, mild indulgences, and easy absolutions, to
acquire the confidence of the Catholic population to
the injury of the lay priests in the canton. The Pro
testant majority of the Grand Council, had then re
solved upon the banishment of the paters, but the
measure was opposed by the less numerous Catholics,
under the plea that it was calculated to impose re
strictions upon their religion, and even upon the edu
cation of their children, there being rather a scanty
supply of proper teachers in the canton. Political
circumstances, however, compelled the minority to
yield, and the Ligorians had accordingly been ordered
to quit the territory.
In 1810, however, the Jesuits, della Torre, Godinot,
Drach, Rudolph, and Staudinger, had succeeded in
settling under the name of "fathers of faith," at
THE CANTON SOLOTHURN. 217
Valais, which canton had at that period belonged
(as the department Simplon) to the French territory ;
it seems, however, that their residence there was un
known to the local authorities, since the latter re
quested Pope Pius VII., after the repristination of
the order in 1814, to send them some from Home,
when Pius replied, that there were already several
in the canton, under the name " fathers of faith."
On receiving this intelligence, preparations were
speedily made to restore to them their old colleges
at Sittin and Brig. Not long after, they had already
under their control all the schools of the canton,
though these schools stood nominally under the su
perintendence of the state. The same success at
tended also their attempts in the canton Solothurn,
soon after the restoration of their order in 1814.
Already, in 1804, a great friend of the Jesuits, the
abbe Rohrbach, Canon of Strasburg, had endeavoured
to effect the admission of the Jesuits in that canton,
by offering in return to its government, whose ex
chequer was then in a very low state, a present of
50,000 francs. The government was foolish enough
to agree to the bargain ; but as the " fathers of faith"
had about that time incurred the displeasure of Na-
L
218 REFUSAL TO ADMIT THE JESUITS.
poleon, fear of offending that great " mediator " pre
vented the execution of the agreement. After the fall
of the emperor, the papal nuncio demanded (1815) the
fulfilment of the contract of 1804; and though the
government of Solothurn seemed inclined to comply
with the demand, the liberal party, supported by the
professors of the Lyceum University, and even by a
portion of the lay-clergy, offered such strenuous
opposition to the demand, that the Grand Council not
only declined (15th June, 1816) the re-admission of
the Jesuits, but even enacted that the question should
never be mooted again in the canton. A few com
munities, however, were afterwards allowed to receive
Jesuit missionaries amongst them. This apparent
defeat was, however, more than counterbalanced by
the triumph of the Loyolites in the canton Friburg,
in the little territory which has always been the
darkest corner of the confederation, and the main
citadel of the Jesuits. As late as the end of the last
century, the ignorance of the people there was so
great, that reading and writing were considered high
accomplishments ; and if any one in the rural dis
tricts was found reading, he was saluted with " Praised
be the Lord Jesus, you are in your devotion," it being
ABODE AT FRIBURG. 219
supposed by the common people that there existed
no other books but the religious tracts distributed
amongst them by the clergy. In 1803 the Grand
Council had appointed a Board or committee of edu
cation, consisting of eight secular and eight ecclesias
tical members. The committee, however, never met,
the measure having been obstinately opposed by
the capuchin bishop Guisolan. Despite this state
of affairs, a circumstance so favourable for their
operations, the Jesuits, owing to the dislike of Napo
leon, were unable to get a footing there, until the end
of his career, and even then only under the less
odious name Ligorians. Their whole conduct at
that period is too characteristic of their principles to
be omitted in our narrative. In June, 1811, Joseph
Basserat, who styled himself Hector of the " congre
gation of the most holy Redeemer/ petitioned the
lesser Council of Friburg to allow him and seven or
eight of his colleagues to stay for a few months upon
Catholic ground, previous to his transplanting his
congregation to the Crimea. The request was
granted, and permission given them to remain
until the 1st October; after the lapse of that
time the permission was prolonged at the earnest
L2
220 BASSERAT AND HIS COLLEAGUES.
solicitation of Bishop Guisolan until the 1st May
following. No sooner was the permission prolonged,
than Basserat and his colleagues removed from the
country seat of a friend of theirs at Balterswyl to a
house in the capital of the canton, where they settled
in good earnest, and secretly received even novices.
As usual, they managed to acquire friends and
patrons among the inhabitants. Confident of their
protection, Basserat addressed (29th April, ]812) a
request to the government to allow him to continue
his abode and settlement at Friburg, but not a word
did he mention about the departure for the Crimea.
The lesser Council granted the request, under the
express condition that Basserat should also obtain the
consent from the French ambassador in Switzerland,
otherwise he and his companions were to leave the
canton without any further delay. Basserat, though
he was unable to obtain the consent of the French
minister, still lingered with his colleagues at Friburg,
under the protection of the bishop and other friends
and patrons. The bishop even carried his contempt
of the local authorities so far, as even to install
Basserat and a few others of the Ligorians in clerical
benefices.
221
However objectionable the means were, by which
the Friburg aristocracy had usurped the administra
tive power of the canton after the fall of Napoleon,
they had nevertheless the merit of having, in the
first years of their power, done more for national edu
cation than any of the previous governments of the
canton. Under the conduct and care of a proper
Board appointed for the purpose, Pater Girard, the
celebrated Swiss preacher, author, and professor, was
enabled to elevate national education in his little
fatherland to an uncommon degree of eminence.
Girard s method in teaching, which was admired by
the celebrated Bell, and soon advantageously known
abroad, was not only founded upon the system of
mutual instruction, but also calculated to improve
the mind and heart of the pupil in a moral and
religious point of view. The visible advantages he
had gained by the immense progress of his pupils,
and which, if allowed to continue, would in a short
time have wrought a perfect revolution in the life of
the people, and destroyed to the very root supersti
tion, vice, and ignorance, had excited the fears of the
great host of spiritual blockheads in the canton,
while the clergy in their jealousy even alarmed the
222 THE LIGORIANS IN FRIBURG.
ambitious aristocracy with the prognostication, that
the irreligious tolerance of Pater Girard s enlight
ened principles, were more calculated to put a speedy
termination to their power than all the plots and in
trigues of the political agitators taken together. The
consequence was, that the greater portion of the
aristocracy made an alliance with the clergy, which
terminated in the destruction of Girard s grand
fabric of education, and the surrender of its manage
ment into hands who had at heart the political inte
rests of the aristocracy, rather than the improvement
of the young generation.
But to whom could the task be better confided
than to the Jesuits ? for no one understood better
than they did, the art of stultifying the people, and
keeping them in gross ignorance ; it was they indeed
who, in conjunction with the aristocracy, had for the
space of two hundred years kept the people of Friburg
in utter darkness and brutal ignorance. The aris
tocracy therefore resolved to re-establish formally
the order in the canton. Aware, however, that the
liberal portion of the aristocracy would be opposed
to the measure, recourse was had to the same de
ception, to the same trick, which was practised
ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 223
at Vienna two years afterwards. The Jesuits were
in the first instance introduced in Friburg under
the name Ligorians. As the old Carthusian clois
ter at Valsainte had remained unoccupied ever since
the departure of the monks in 1811, the grand-
bailiff at Greyers took the opportunity of asking
Government to transfer the empty building to the
Ligorians, for the purpose of establishing there a
school or college. Despite the opposition of the liberal
party, the Grand Council consented (16th Jan. 1818)
to the proposal, by a majority of 61 against 45 votes.
The grant was, however, given under certain restric
tions, the most important of which was, that the
number of the pater-Ligorians in the whole canton
should not exceed eleven, and that of their servants
five. But, as the leaders of the party well knew that
the great light kindled by Girard could not be so easily
extinguished by the small number of the mischievous
fathers, it was further resolved to address the Ge
neral Assembly of the Council, which was to meet
on the 15th September, 1818, and request its con
sent to permit the re-establishment of the order
in the canton under its real name, and the re-intro
duction of its members in unlimited numbers. The
224 WARNING OF THE VORORT OF BERNE.
papal nuncio and the friends of the Jesuits employed
in the interval all the means in their power to
win the people for the cause. In a largely circu
lated pamphlet, the party asserted in unequivocal
terms, that every true Catholic ought to love the
order of Jesus, and do all he can to promote the
admission and settlement of the members ; that the
college at Eriburg having been morally poisoned
by modern philosophy, it ought to be left to the
pious fathers to cleanse it of the poison, and con
duct it in future on a better plan for the sal
vation of the young generation. But the most
ready means employed of promoting the object in
view, was the usual specific of the Jesuits, slander
and calumny. Meritorious and respectable men,
who had voted in the previous sessions against
the admission of the Jesuits, were now branded
as enemies of religion, scheming the overthrow of
the old belief. In the morning of the 15th Sep
tember, a day which has since become so famous
in the modern history of Switzerland, a letter
was received from the Vorort, or Government of
Berne, in which the following prophetic expressions
occur: " The impending decision about the Jesuit
DISCUSSION IN THE ASSEMBLY. 225
order will prove of the highest importance, not
only for the canton Friburg, but probably also for
the whole confederation. It may lead to incalculable
consequences. We therefore entreat you, dear allies
and fellow-confederates, to weigh well whether the
welfare of the present and future generations, whe
ther the true religion and moral requirements of our
Swiss people, whether the continuance of a happy
and political existence of our fatherland, the promo
tion of union among the various cantons, whether
all this is compatible with the admission of the Je
suits, with the influence which the order, as the sole
aim of its persevering and long efforts, may again
acquire amongst you ; and whether, on the contrary,
instead of advancing the higher interests of the state
and the inhabitants, such a decision may not lead to
dangers for both, which prudence and duty command
us to anticipate by strong resistance. The expe
rience of several nations and several centuries justi
fies these apprehensions." ....
Not Jess eloquent remonstrances, were made also
by the liberal members of the Grand Council against
the introduction of the Jesuits. Alexander Stutz
and Landerset, in particular, sketched in glowing
L3
226 JESUIT CATECHISM.
colours the dangers that would result from intrust
ing the order with the most sacred treasure of the
nation the education of the youth and with it
also the whole future of national life ; they dwelt
with indignation on the probability of handing over
the education of their children to members who,
without genuine knowledge, without efficient educa
tion, without a fatherland of their own, and full of
hatred against true liberty and enlightenment, are
only endeavouring to suppress human intellect and
promote ignorance and superstition in the public
mind, who, meddling with everything, only wish to
play the masters over families and even governments.
They quoted in proof, the following passages from
a catechism which had been composed by a Jesuit
father, named Sconville, and which, having been
highly recommended by Bishop Laurent, the papal
nuncio in Luxemburg, is now used for the youth
under his episcopal care.
" Q. Of what use is the sign of the holy cross ?
" A. To destroy all sorts of sorcery, and to drive
away the devil, ghosts, and all temptations.
" Q. In what place will each one arise in the re
surrection ?
JESUIT CATECHISM. 227
"A. Each, one will rise in that place where the
largest portion of his body remains.
" Q. In what form will each rise again ?
" A. Of a middling stature, with well-proportioned
limbs, and each according to the sex previously
possessed.
" Q. In what age shall we rise from the dead ?
"A. In the age of Christ, as if we all were thirty-
three years old.
" Q. Shall the world be inhabited again ?
" A. Some think, unbaptized children will inhabit
it, but none else, not even the beasts.
" Q. Is it allowable to take one s wages, or any
thing else due to us, in a secret, clandestine manner?
" A. He who will act safely in this, must ask his
priest.
" Q. Must stolen goods be restored and the injury
made good?
" A. Yes, to those to whom it belongs, if possible.
" Q. If the owner is unknown, what is to be
done?
" A. It must be given to God as the master of all,
in the way of masses, alms, &c., for the benefit of the
owner.
228 JESUIT CATECHISM.
" Q. Are there any more church laws ?
" A. Oh, yes, there are others.
" Q. What are they?
" A. It is commanded, for instance, to pay tithes.
" Q. Of what should tithes be paid?
"A. According to right, of everything, but the
custom of the place must decide.
" Q. Is it a sin not to pay tithes ?
" A. Yes, it is a great sin.
" Q. How does the church punish the nonpayment
of tithes ?
" A. She commands that such as do not pay shall
be excommunicated, and not restored until they have
repaid all.
" Q. What if they were wicked priests who should
get the tithes ?
" A. Honour is still due to them, for they remain
vicars of God ?
"Q. Where is hell?
" A. Hell is in the middle of the earth.
" Q. Is hell very large ?
"A. Not very, for the damned lay packed in
it one upon another, like the bricks in a brick
JESUIT CATECHISM. 229
Such are the instructions which a Jesuit bishop of
the nineteenth century thinks suitable for improving
the heart and mind of Roman Catholic youth.
As a specimen of Jesuit devotional exercises for
those of riper years, a few extracts were also read from
a work published in 1764 by Father Pembie, entitled
"Pietas quotidiana erga. S. D. Matrem Mariam,"
(or daily devotions to the Holy Mother Mary), and
in which the following modes of propitiating her are
recommended :
" First. Undertake a mental pilgrimage, and visit,
in spirit, all the miracle working images of Mary
throughout the world.
"Second. Repeat the Magnificat six times in
honour of the six persons who were present with
St. Elizabeth at the time of the visitation of our
Lady.
"Third. Repeat nine psalms in honour of the
nine months during which Christ abode in the Vir
gin s womb.
" Fourth. Repeat every hour of the day, ( Holy
Mary make me meek and chaste !
"Fifth. Worship during the night towards a
church dedicated to the Virgin.
230 JESUIT CATECHISM.
" Sixth. Offer to her the first cherries which come
to table.
" Seventh. Scourge thyself, box thine ears, and
pray the Virgin to present these blows as sacrifices
before God.
" Eighth. Engrave the name Mary on thy
bosom with a knife, or corrode it into the flesh.
" Ninth. Kiss the name ( Mary/ as often as you
see it.
"Tenth. Send pious thoughts to the greater
Mary in Rome.
" Eleventh. Make verses, or repeat them in her
honour, as, for example, that devout hymn addressed
to her hair-comb (there are five verses, but the last
will suffice) which has been translated as follow :
In all dangers give us to thy care,
Shield us from them with thy precious hair.
Safely by thy curling locks us guide,
To the city where all joys abide.
" Twelfth. Tell the Virgin you would be willing
to give up your place in heaven to her if she had not
one already.
"Thirteenth. Implore Mary to get you an au
dience by her Son.
DECISION IN FAVOUR OF THE ORDER. 231
" Fourteenth. Repeat f Mary, hail ! twelve times
a day, in honour of the twelve stars that encircle her
head." ....
It was, however, all to no purpose. The majority
of the Grand Council resolved (19th September), by
69 against 48 votes, to surrender the educational
establishments in the canton, together with a fund
of 1,000,000 francs, to the order of Jesus. The
Loyolites were not slow in taking possession of the
national college and Lyceum at Friburg. It is true,
that, in the enactment, their number was limited to
only thirty members ; they, however, soon managed
to exceed the prescribed limits, having cunningly
contrived to place at the head of the central police
an ultra-patrician, who was wholly devoted to their
cause. Since then, their establishment at Friburg
resembled a bee-hive. The exact number of the
paters in the canton, remained a secret to the unin
itiated, though it was well known that in 1825 the
number amounted to no less than eighty.
Several years, however, elapsed before the Loyolites
ventured to attack openly Pater Girard and his system
of education, so much was he, and so little were they
respected by the public at large. Bishop Jenny, pre-
232 GIRARD AND HIS OPPONENTS.
viously a panegyrist of Girard, and since a blind
instrument of the Jesuits, had made, in 1821, a pre
mature attack on Girard, when he completely failed
in the attempt. The fathers were therefore now most
sedulously employed in circulating slanderous reports
against Girard, branding him in the eyes of the
masses as a heretic, atheist, a Lutheran (Luther him
self having belonged to the Franciscan order), a
second Voltaire, &c., &c. On the 25th February,
1823, Bishop Jenny petitioned the States Council
to abolish the method of instruction introduced by
Girard. The pupils, he stated, were spending too
much time in worldly knowledge, such as grammar,
natural history, &c. ; and the system being moreover
adapted for the youths of all religious sects indis
criminately, the Catholic religion is thereby neg
lected, and the authority of the clergy considerably
weakened. The citizens of Friburg, on the other
hand, memorialised the government, saying, amongst
other things, that the day when Father Girard s
schools were to be closed would prove a day of
general mourning. Of the eleven Catholic chief
bailiffs in the canton, nine reported to the Board
of Education, that all the charges brought against
TRIUMPH OF THE JESUIT PARTY. 233
Girard were without any foundation in fact, and
that ; on the contrary, the prosperity and industry of
the little canton were chiefly the work of the very
school system so much defamed by his enemies. The
noble Franciscan himself (Girard) showed most con
vincingly, in a memorial addressed by him to the
Municipal Council, that religion formed the central
point of his method, while the Education Board
almost unanimously rejected the petition of the
bishop. It was, however, of no avail. The compact
Jesuit party, which formed the majority in the
Grand Council, resolved (4th June, 1823), that, as
it is the duty of every good Catholic to follow
blindly the will of his bishop, the request of the
latter ought to be complied with also in the present
instance. Thus, under cover of religion, the fate
of a work was sealed, which might, at no distant
time, have formed the chief corner stone of lasting
welfare to the small canton. Pater Girard there
upon returned to Luzern, his native place, where,
after the lapse of twenty-five years (1847), he
heard with joy, that his mortal enemies had been
banished from Friburg and the whole of Switzer
land ; and the good news was soon followed by his
234 GRAND BUILDING.
formal recall to the former place of his intellectual
activity.
It was, however, only after the departure of
Girard, that the Loyolites were enabled to develope
their education schemes to the fullest extent. They
had now under their control, not only the higher
departments, but also the education of the lower
classes. They became, moreover, the guides and
counsellors of the government itself, whose principal
concern, it seems, was, how to degrade the little
canton as a stronghold of the Jesuits in the very
heart of Europe. The next thing the patricians
of Friburg did for their dearly beloved Jesuits,
was the establishment of a boarding-school on a
grand scale. The building exceeds in magnificence
any of the kind in Europe. It was erected in 1825,
simultaneously with the Jesuit college, and was
provided with splendid lecture-rooms, museums,
riding- school, gymnastic and tiltyard, and play
grounds. The large outlay required for the build
ing (the ground alone cost above 45,000 francs),
was procured partly by shares, and partly by
voluntary contributions at home and abroad. A
splendid wing was added to the building as an eccle-
MORE MONEY VOTED. 235
siastical seminary, which cost 160,000 francs. When
this building was still in progress of erection, the
Jesuits obtained (1826) the ready permission from
government to found another settlement, a noviciate,
at Staefis. No one knows where the money has
been procured for the purpose. In addition, the
fathers also discovered, that their lecture-rooms at
Friburg were too small for the audiences. It is
true, that there was close by, the academy, a stately
building, which had formerly also been occupied
by Jesuits, and might now have been used as a
lecture-hall. But the humble disciples of St. Igna
tius wanted a far handsomer, an ostentatious and
imposing lyceum in their neighbourhood, and the
wish was readily granted, the Grand Council having
voted 130,000 francs for the new building in the
same year (12th December, 1826). In vain did the
minority protest against the squandering of the
public money for the members of the order. In
vain was it shown, that the money had better been
applied to the erection of an orphan asylum and
hospitals, or the improvement of public roads,
prisons, &c. institutions which the canton was so
deficient in, and which had far better and more solid
236 DECLINE OF THE CANTON.
claims on the public exchequer than those of the
Jesuits; it was of no avail. The Jesuits ruled
the will, minds, and hearts of the majority of the
council, who carried every wish of theirs into prompt
execution.
The immediate results of Jesuit dominion were
nowhere more conspicuous than in the canton of Fri-
burg. No sooner had the Loyolites settled there,
than gross superstition, absurd ceremonial worship,
ignorance, contempt of the laws of the land, unsafety
of person and property, and moral depravity began to
prevail to an unparalleled extent. Agriculture and
husbandry were neglected, partly from idleness, and
partly by the numerous holy days, which were most
strictly kept ; and the consequence was, the complete
impoverishment of many communities. Even the
affluence of the capital of the canton was daily on
the decrease, though one would suppose, that the vast
Doarding-school, which became soon filled with pupils
from all parts of Catholic Europe, ought to have in
creased the trade and occupation of the inhabitants.
The moral depravity, however, which prevailed in the
establishment, by far outweighed the material gain
derived from the pupils, which, by the bye, was not
THE JULY REVOLUTION. 237
so considerable as might be believed. The pupils
were not allowed to live in private lodgings, and were
moreover compelled to buy the necessary articles,
such as sugar, coffee, clothing, hats, shoes, &c., either
from the paters themselves, or from their wholesale
agents in town.
When the French Revolution of 1830 found an
echo also in Switzerland, the Jesuits had so firmly
established themselves in that canton, that the storm
passed harmlessly by them. The rule of the patri
cians was destroyed, but that of the Jesuits remained
in all its old glory, because it was founded on the
ignorance and moral neglect of the masses, who were
now in possession of the sovereign power. The new
members of the government of Friburg were, like
their predecessors, obedient servants of the pious
fathers. They showed it already in the first years of
their power, by the introduction of the female Jesuits,
whose presence the canton had hitherto been spared.
Without the knowledge or consent of the Grand
Council, the lesser Council granted (1831) the esta
blishment of a convent for the sisters of the sacred
heart of Jesus " in the immediate vicinity of the
Jesuit noviciate at Staefis, under the feigned name of
238 RELIGIOUS HATRED.
an " Establishment for Young Ladies." No one
dared to oppose it.
The July Revolution could indeed but slightly affect
the Jesuits in Switzerland, where they had taken so
deep root. Since the Restoration of 1815, they had
been in the closest and most intimate intercourse with
the papal Board of nuncios, whose approval they
possessed in all their movements in the Helvetic
Confederation, tending to reduce the country to its
former allegiance to the pope, and to annihilate those
rights which the state had reserved for itself in
church matters. Experience had, moreover, taught
the pious fathers that the most efficacious means of
bringing government and people under the yoke of
church absolutism, consisted in the conjuring up the
dark ghost of religious hatred. As soon as govern
ments or the people are affected by the fanatical whim
to hate and persecute all those who differ from them
in religious belief, their own rights and independence
soon and easily become a prey to the sly priests, who
have fevered their brain to that paroxysm. For that
reason, Loyola s disciples have always found it expe
dient to keep up the flame of religious hatred, not
only because they felt themselves inspired with that
PERSECUTION AND INTOLERANCE. 239
same hostile sentiment against the Protestants, but
chiefly because the people and their rulers, by losing
sight of all worldly claims and rights, in their hot
pursuit of eternal merits and rewards, afford them
(the Jesuits) the safest opportunity of carrying into
effect their own arrogant aspirations.
In Switzerland, as in all other countries, during the
absence of the Jesuits, all confessional enmities had
been extinguished, and peace and harmony restored in
all parts of the confederation. No sooner, however,
had the pious fathers trodden again the Swiss soil,
than they rekindled the fire of religious intolerance,
in order to excite and confuse the minds and hearts
of the Catholic inhabitants, and render them blind
instruments for the realisation of their own ambitious
views. Already in the first year (1818) of their
arrival in Switzerland, they renewed the celebration
of the anniversary of the victory gained by the
Catholics over the Protestants in the battle at Ville-
mer (1656), which festival had been abolished ever
since 1798. They employed in addition, the press
and their missionaries, to rouse throughout Catholic
Switzerland the evil spirit of discord and schism.
Innumerable copies of so-called religious tracts were
240 JESUIT ATTEMPTS
distributed among all classes of society, calculated to
instil into the mind of the readers gross superstition,
bigotry, and intolerance. In 1822, the notorious
Jesuit Van Wyenbergh had founded a separate order
called the Catholic, for the purpose of assisting the
Jesuits in the work of destruction. By such de
moniac manoeuvres, all the civil right enjoyed by the
Protestants in the Catholic cantons were denounced
as being so many premiums upon heresy. Even the
permission accorded by the government of Luzern, in
1827, to the Protestant inhabitants, of building a
church of their own, was considered by the Catholics
in the whole confederation as a step towards encou
raging infidelity. Indeed, every measure adopted by
government to introduce reform and improvement in
the internal affairs of the country, and more especially
in education and public instruction, was represented
to the Catholic inhabitants as an attempt to overthrow
the creed of their fathers, and substitute for it the
doctrines of Zwingli.
It was to be foreseen that, should the liberal
governments of the cantons, which had been remo
delled by the revision of the constitution in 1829 and
1830, succeed in their efforts to introduce reforms in
THE LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE CANTONS. 241
the administration and institutions of their respective
cantons,, there would be an end to Jesuitism, and all
church abuses and intrigues in Switzerland. At that
period, the Confederate Governments were indeed
seriously thinking of introducing into Switzerland the
process of European civilisation, to which that union
had been a stranger for nearly a whole century; and the
surest way of attaining that desirable end, was justly
thought to be found in a thorough reform of the
public schools and colleges. This plan had filled the
Jesuits with such horror, that they put in motion all
the organs they could muster to annihilate the liberal
governments, or to check at least their progressive
movements. They found very willing and ready allies
in the old conservative cantons, as also in the fallen
aristocracy of the new ones. At the head of
liberalism, stood the governments of Luzern and
Solothurn (two purely Catholic cantons), of St. Gaul,
with its preponderating protestant population, and of
Aargau, with a mixed population of nearly an equal
number of Catholics and Protestants. They became,
in consequence, the theatres of the Jesuitical and
ultra-montane intrigues. The opponents began with
denouncing from the pulpits, and in the confessionals,,
M
242 THE JESUITS FAIL IN THEIR ATTEMPTS.
some particular members of those governments as
infidels and atheists, and with inciting the people
against the proposed improvements in schools, as
tending to expose and endanger the Catholic re
ligion. In Solothurn, a petition to the Grand
Council was set on foot, and brought into circula
tion for signatures, praying for the retention not
only of the existing professors at the Lyceum and the
university, (who were all filled with the spirit of
Jesuitism,) but also of the existing old plan and
method of education. Finding but little encourage
ment in the process of lawful agitation, the Jesuits
had recourse to more hazardous means, to intimidate
government by religious outbreaks. Their manoeuvres,
however, proved this time unsuccessful ; in 1832, the
reforms and improvements proposed to be introduced
into the schools were brought into force without
much difficulty. Similar and even worse attempts at
disturbances were made by the Jesuits and their
friends also in the other new cantons, which equally
failed. At Luzern, a " Catholic Union " was esta
blished in 1831, which soon spread all over Switzer
land. The main object of the union, was to sow the
dragon-seed of religious hatred, and to rear and
THE CONFERENCE AT BADEN. 243
nourish in the minds of the people the fear and alarm
of religious danger. The union was also occupied
with another task, with the suppression of all liberal
books and journals on the one hand, and with the
diffusion of cheap and even gratuitous writings, com
posed in the spirit of ultramontane and Jesuitical
principles on the other, as also with influencing the
votes of the citizens at the coming elections. The
statutes of the union imposed in unequivocal terms
the duty upon the members, to give their votes at
the election of the Grand Council only to such can
didates who were to be pointed out to them by the
Jesuits, Capuchins, or other Catholic priests. Its
operations were greatly facilitated by the consider
able funds at its command, which had been collected
by contributions from high and low.
The Loyolites and their adherents were still more
stimulated to active schemes in Switzerland, by the
famous Baden conference. In that conference,
Luzern, Bern, Aargau, Thurgau, St. Gaul, Basle,
and Zurich, had agreed to preserve their rights in all
church and episcopate matters against the encroach
ing pretensions of the pope. Though these resolu
tions did not materially differ from the ecclesiastical
M2
244 THE PAPAL CIRCULAR.
regulations existing in most of the other Catholic
countries, Pope Gregory XVI. condemned them in a
circular (17th May, 1833) addressed to the clergy of
the Helvetic Confederation, as "false, impertinent, and
erroneous, as tending to lessen the rights of the holy
chair, to overthrow the church and her divine regu
lations, and subjugate it to the rule of the secular
power, which is derived from erroneous doctrines,
is aiming at heresies, and is schismatical." The
whole ultramontane host of believers in Switzer
land were set in motion, to give emphatic effect
to the judgment and opinion of the holy father.
We need hardly mention, that no one was more busy
in raising among the Catholics the general cry of
" religious danger " than our pious fathers ; they
partly succeeded in intimidating the majority of the
liberal governments, who were particularly afraid
lest the great powers, and more especially France,
should interfere in behalf of Rome. This timid
anxiety may well be excused, when we consider that
the papal nunciature, in conjunction with the Jesuits
and their abettors, had it then in contemplation
to stir up a religious civil war in Switzerland, in op
position to the Baden conference. It was the Swiss
THE NUNCIO QUITS LUZERN. 245
" Church Gazette/ (published by the ultramontane
party at Luzern,) which first reminded the public,
in October, 1835, of the so-called " golden treaty"
concluded between Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug,
Luzern, Solothurn and Friburg, in 1586, for the main
tenance of the Catholic church in Switzerland. The
praises which were lavished in that gazette upon the
memory of those men who had taken the most active
part in kindling the wild fire of religious war in
those early times, and the republication of the con
troversial pamphlets which had been distributed
among the masses in those bygone periods, amply
betrayed the object the party had in view, and what
they were aiming at. These inimical demonstrations
were accompanied by the departure of the nuncio
Angelio and the whole of his chancellery from Luzern
(November, 1835), a step that is usually considered
by the laws of nations as a declaration of war. He
quitted his post, by the direction of his master, with
out even taking leave of the local authorities, and
removed to Schwyz, where the Jesuits and the aris
tocracy had already made very powerful progress.
The Loy elites had in the previous centuries made
several but ineffectual attempts to get a firm footing
246 THE SCHWYZ PEOPLE.
in Schwyz, the largest of the original cantons. The
last attempt of the kind had been in 1758, when the
governor Augustin Reding, one of the most wealthy
and notable personages of the canton, had offered
80,000 florins, his own mansion, and several acres of
land, for the erection of a Jesuit college in Schwyz.
He promised, moreover, one florin, as a bribe, to
every individual who would vote for the admission
of the Jesuits, to which gratuity the high bailiff,
Ulrich, had added another of ten shillings per head.
Notwithstanding all these extraordinary efforts and
foul means, the National Assembly (at that time the
supreme power in the state) rejected the offer of
Reding, and even enacted a law, interdicting by
hard penalties any attempt to introduce the Jesuit
question in the canton. The people of Schwyz were
at that time of opinion, that " it might be far better
and more pleasing to God, if the rich Mr. Reding
would build a poor union and repair the parish
church. The poor natives would certainly feel more
grateful to him than do the gentlemen Jesuits."
But the views of the Schwyz people in the nine
teenth century were quite different on that point.
The alliance which was concluded here between the
LIBERAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 247
aristocracy and the hierarchy, for the reclamation
of their prerogatives, had so increased the power
and influence of the clergy, that not a vestige was
left of the once anti-Jesuitical and independent feel
ing of the people. This was particularly seen after
the papal nuncio had fixed his abode amongst them.
Quite overpowered by the mighty honour of the
presence of the nuncio, the Schwyz National As
sembly resolved (May, 1836) to comply with the
wish of the latter, and establish a Jesuit college
in the capital of the canton. A committee was
formed of ecclesiastical and secular members, to
procure the necessary funds for the purpose. An
appeal made (June) to the pious public of the
various cantons and foreign states was quickly
responded to in the most liberal manner. Within
a very short time, the requisite sum of 150,000
francs had flowed in from Friburg, Luzern, Aargau,
and St. Gaul, as also from Rome, France, and
Sardinia. The Schwyz government, not to be
behind in the liberal race, presented the Loyolites
with the Gymnasium of Schwyz, together with its
endowment funds, and to which it subsequently
added also a contribution of 8000 francs. The
248 BUILDINGS FOR THE JESUITS.
pious fathers were thus enabled to open the esta
blishment on the 1st November, 1836, under the pre
sidency of Pater John Battist Drach. The then pro
fessors of the Gymnasium, consisting of lay clergy,
were obliged to resign without receiving the least
indemnification. Encouraged by the facility with
which the 150,000 francs had been procured, as also
by the increasing number of the new students,
(amounting in 1837 to 229,) another sum of 100,000
francs was voted by the same committee in May,
1839, for the purpose of establishing a Jesuit board
ing-school after the model of that at Friburg. Also
that amount was soon got together by a sort of joint-
stock scrips. Not satisfied with emptying their
pockets in behalf of the disciples of St. Ignatius, the
Schwyz even put their shoulders to the wheel, and
literally assisted with their own hands to build the
new boarding-school and Jesuit church. The inha
bitants of the village of Schwyz, and other small
places, rivalled in enthusiasm, or rather fanaticism,
to collect and carry to the proper spots on every
Sunday and other holy days, the vast quantities of
bricks and stones requisite for the buildings. Even
the women, girls, and children helped in the task of
JESUITS AND DEMOCRATS. 249
dragging large blocks of granite for the erection of a
Jesuit stronghold in the canton.
Schwyz thus became the real hearth of the Je
suitical and ultra-montane intrigues, the effects of
which were soon felt by the liberal governments of
the neighbouring cantons, and more especially at
Luzern, Aargau, and Solothurn. But what par
ticularly promoted the further triumphs of the
Loyolites was their relation to the ultra- democratic
party, as also the revolution of September, 1839, in
the canton Zurich, the work of the same Machia
vellian party. The Jesuits and their adherents had
long since felt, that the alliance which they had con
cluded after the disturbances of 1830, with the fallen
aristocracy of the new Catholic cantons, did not
answer their anticipations. They therefore resolved
to steer on the opposite tack, and rather ally them
selves with the sovereign people, whom they had
already tied to the leading strings of fanaticism and
religious hatred. These expedients were, strange as
it may appear, by no means new to the Loyolites.
They had in earlier times seized the banner of the
" sovereignty of the people " to serve their own pur
poses and enslave the very sovereign multitude to
M3
250 ALLIANCE.
whom they were swearing allegiance. The Jesuits
know very well,, that a super-orthodox and fanatical
democracy may as blindly be led by confessors and
monkish intrigues, as are petty princes and a poor
aristocracy, and they have not neglected to act upon
that presumption in all countries where the people
either were already, or strove to come into possession
of the sovereign power of the state. By a most
remarkable coincidence, the Jesuits were met in
Switzerland by the same manoeuvre on the part of
the Protestants, after a reaction had taken place in
their favour. In some of the Protestant cantons the
reduced aristocracy had also (1830) fallen upon the
expedient of allying itself with the reactionary clergy,
to expel the odious liberalism from state, church, and
school. Having failed in this scheme, the aristocracy
had likewise recourse to the alliance of the multi
tude. Neither was the Jesuit and ultra-montane
party slow in recognising good and serviceable allies
in the bigoted Protestants, with whom they now
made common cause to annihilate the liberal govern
ments by means of the anarchical power of the
masses. The scheming portion of the clergy, both
Catholic and Protestant, were always in the fore-
DR. STRAUSS. 251
ground of the agitating stage; they represented in
their sermons, journals, and pamphlets, the liberal
governments and institutions as irreligious, immoral,
and unchristian, while the reformed and improved
schools were denounced by them as " nurseries of
impiety and infidelity" The aristocracy was, on the
other hand, extolled as the "elect friends of the
Saviour," who generously endeavoured to save for
the people their most sacred treasure, their religion.
To lend to these machinations the appearance of
national liberty, a great deal was said of the justice
of introducing an uncontrolled municipal administra
tion, as the primary requisite of national liberty, of
re-establishing corporations and chartered companies,
of expelling foreigners from native interests, and all
such sorts of egotistical prejudices so palatable to the
unthinking multitude.
The effects of that line of policy, adopted in com
mon by the Catholic and Protestant clergy, soon
manifested themselves in the ignominious revolution
at Zurich in 1839. The liberal government of Zurich
had, in January of that year, appointed as Professor
of Church History and Dogmatics, Dr. Strauss, of
Thiibingen, a decided opponent of orthodox reli-
252 THE ZURICH REVOLUTION.
gion, and well known in Europe by his work, " The
Life of Jesus." The appointment was made in op
position to the theological faculty, and was no doubt
a too hasty and hazardous step on the part of govern
ment; it gave edge and point to the accusations
of the church party, who now had the best oppor
tunity of apparently substantiating their grievances
in the eyes of the public. Measures were taken to
excite the fanaticism of the country people; and
though government, aware of the error committed,
had already withdrawn the appointment, 15,000 pea
sants entered Zurich on the 6th of September, 1839,
where, having expelled the liberal authorities, they
delivered the reins of government into the hands of
the aristocracy. The triumph with which the Loyol-
ites and their adherents saluted the victory of reac
tion at Zurich, the warm thanks and congratulations
sent from Rome to the home of Zwingli on the happy
result of the eventful attempt, plainly showed the
internal machinery of the whole movement against
liberalism, and the intriguing assistance given by the
Jesuits and ultramontane votaries in that insurrec
tion. The Bishop of Friburg, who was entirely
ruled by the Jesuits, even issued a circular letter to
THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENTS UPSET. 253
the Swiss Protestants,, in which, after referring to
the "marvellous events" in the canton Zurich, he
called upon them to return into the bosom of the
only-saving church. The effects of the Zurich re
volution on the cause of liberty and education in
Switzerland, and particularly in the Catholic can
tons, were incalculably great. The Jesuits and the
Catholic clergy began to agitate the people every
where for their own cause. Under their protection,
and with their help, the liberal authorities in the
various new cantons, and more especially at the
elections of the grand councils, lost their posts, and
were replaced by individuals from the very dregs of
society, who were blindly guided and led by the sly
agitators. The constitutions or laws were soon re
vised and barbarised in the theocratico-ochlocratic
or aristocratic spirit. Under the adopted system of
religious intolerance, every free direction in religion
became extinct, and the whole power of reaction was
directed against education, and more particularly
against the new national schools, as the nursery of
civilisation, while the least opposition to these nefa
rious achievements was met by a direct appeal to
the frenzy and physical force of the masses.
254 LEU EBERSOL.
The canton Luzern was the first to feel most
bitterly the victory and the ascendancy of the Je
suits, the zeal of the liberal governments for educa
tion and national instruction having long ^ince yielded
to the fear of the ultramontane party. Already,
in November, 1839, a certain Leu Ebersol, leader of
that party in the Grand Council of Luzern, had made
a motion to transfer the college of that place, accord
ing to the custom of their forefathers, to the society
of Jesus. The Grand Council, it is true, took no
notice of the motion, but the Loyolites and their
friends managed in 1841 to have a new Council
elected, the members of which, being adherents of
Leu Ebersol and the Jesuits, soon wrought a radical
revision in the constitution and statutes of the can
ton. This remarkable peasant of Luzern, this Leu
Ebersol and his compeer, Kost, a subsequent member
of the government, being the most influential per
sonages in the state, were the visible and nominal
movers of the insurrection, though, in point of fact,
only the blind instruments of the Jesuits and other
intolerant priests. As in all the other cantons, so
also in Luzern, "Strauss and the Straussites" be
came a formidable weapon in the hands of the
AARGAU CLOISTERS ABOLISHED. 255
papists against the liberals, and more especially after
Hiirliman had asserted (December,, 1840), in the
Grand Council of Zurich, that the "radicals had pur
ported, by the appointment of Strauss, the overthrow
of the Catholic church in Switzerland ; " a calumny
which none of the present Protestant members
seemed disposed to contradict. The ultramontane
party would, however, not so easily have succeeded in
upsetting the liberal government of Luzern, had they
not been assisted by the treachery of some members
of the government itself, and more especially by its
recorder, Siegwart Miiller, who systematically mis
led the liberals to false steps, and involved them in
numerous difficulties, by recommending to them ultra-
radical measures of extreme absurdity. These va
rious intrigues in Luzern were still more facilitated
by the abolition of the cloisters (1841) in Aargau,
where the ultramontane party, in conjunction with
the Jesuits, had likewise incited the people against
government, in order to bring about a separation
between the Catholic and Protestant districts of the
canton. A liberal revision of the constitution
having been executed, the Catholic party ventured
upon an open insurrection (10th January), which was,
256 NEW CONSTITUTION AT LUZERN.
however, soon quelled. As it was known that the
inmates of the Aargau cloisters had been instru
mental to the disturbances, the government de
creed, a few days afterwards, the abolition of the
cloisters. The step, though excusable, was never
theless impolitic ; it was easily to be foreseen, that
great advantage would be taken of it by the oppo
nents, at the ensuing revision of the constitution of
Luzern.
The priests, in league with the old aristocracy,
succeeded also in Luzern, in persuading the simple-
minded people that their religion was in danger,
and in enraging them against the liberal government
and the better educated classes. Under such rela
tions, a new constitution appeared in May, 1841, in
Luzern, which might justly be termed a theocratico-
ochlocratic one. This constitution not only sacri
ficed to the clergy all the rights which the govern
ment had previously possessed in church matters, but
actually delivered the whole power of the state into
the hands of the clergy. The new elected Council
even submitted the constitution to the inspection and
approval of the pope (25th August, 1841), an act
unparalleled in the history of the Confederation.
THE JESUIT QUESTION IN LUZERN. 257
The political and civil rights of the canton were
henceforth to be conceded to the Roman Catholics
alone, while all the offices of the administration, high
and low, were exclusively filled with the obedient
servants of Jesuitism and ultramontaneism. Luzern
now possessed statesmen who could hardly read and
write. The new Luzern constitution contained,
amongst others, the democratic provision that the
people should have the right to give their veto against
the introduction of new societies. Though it would
thus seem that the ruling party had given up the
notion of inviting the Jesuits to the canton, it was,
however, quite different in point of fact ; nay, the
very clause only showed, how sure the party was of
being able to obtain anything the Catholic clergy
might wish for, despite the power reposed in the
people. Before even the close of the same year (9th
Dec. 1841), Leu Ebersol, and eight other members of
the Grand Council, moved for the recall of the Loy-
olites to Luzern, where they were to be intrusted
with the educational establishments in the canton.
The Jesuit question thus became the main political
theme of the Luzern legislature, while in a few years
afterwards, it occupied the legislatures of the whole
258 REPORTS CONCERNING THE JESUITS.
of the Helvetic Confederation. It is, however, re
markable, and speaks volumes against the order,
that the government of Luzern, despite its timid
character and most servile submission to Rome,
had pronounced itself unanimously and most posi
tively against the admission of the Jesuits, in its
message (Sept. 1842) to the Grand Council. More
divided in opinion were the members of the Board
of Education. The result of the motion in the
Grand Council was, that the latter instructed the
government to collect information and report on
the life, conduct, and character of the Jesuits, as
also on the conditions under which the latter would
be inclined to undertake the conduct of the higher
schools. The friends of the party in government
managed to decide the Board to confine the in
formation to be collected only to official notices, to
such only as had been given by the secular and spi
ritual authorities, who were known to be the warmest
friends of the order. Applications were thus made
on the subject to the governments of Schwyz and
Friburg, to Metternich, and to some Helvetic and
Austrian bishops, who, it was to be foreseen, would
speak favourably of the order. And such was really
259
the case. The recall of the Jesuits to Luzern was,
however, more the effect of their own exertions than
of the favourable reports of their friends. To beat
their foes entirely from the field, the pious fathers
visited every place in the canton as missionaries,
kindling in the minds of the populace overpowering
fanaticism for the order, which made them regard the
settlement of the fathers as the most sacred concern of
every good Catholic. About two thirds of the Luzern
clergy whose previous love of the Jesuits had
greatly cooled down by the events in Sardinia and
Belgium, as also by the excessive imperiousness shown
by the Loyolites at that period in some parts of
Switzerland had drawn up a petition to the Grand
Council, praying to rescind the resolution for the
recall of the Loyolites ; but Esterman, bishop of the
diocese Basle, and a great patron of the order, for
bade the clergy under him to join in the request,
and the petition was thus never given in.
Before, however, the Jesuit question was quite
terminated in Luzern, events took place in Switzer
land which ought to have impressed the minds of all
impartial men with the immense danger to which
the confederation was exposing itself by the admission
260 UPPER AND LOWER VALATS.
of the Jesuits. By the machinations of the latter, a
separate and special treaty (Sonderbund) was con
cluded between the three original cantons, Friburg,
Zug, and Luzern, which virtually dissolved the gene
ral union-treaty of the confederation. This separate
treaty was not unlike the notorious " golden alli
ance," which had been concluded some 250 years
previously. To strengthen that union by the acces
sion of the Catholic cantons, Tessin and Valais, the
partisans laboured with untiring zeal to upset the
liberal governments there. The conspiracy in
Tessin was soon discovered and frustrated, while
in Valais it succeeded to a frightful extent. This
canton, as we have mentioned above, was the first to
re-introduce the Loyolites into their old domiciles,
where they had remained for twenty-five years (from
1814 to 1839), the real guides and counsellors of
the old aristocracy. But notwithstanding their en
deavours to stifle in its birth every rising sentiment
of freedom, ay, all intellectual impulses in this seques
tered land which is so separated on all sides from
the rest of the civilised world by high rocks and
lofty mountains the Jesuits were unable to prevent
at least some glimmering light of the new spirit of
THE CLERGY AND THE GOVERNMENT. 261
the age penetrating even into this dark spot of
ignorance and bigotry. Lower Valais, inhabited by
intelligent and lively people, succeeded in bringing
about (1839) , with the assistance of its capital, Sit-
ten, a revision of the constitution ; while the arch-
bigoted and conservative Upper Valaisians showed
resistance, but were obliged, after their defeat near
Sitten (April, 1840), to submit to the rule of liberal
statesmen who had now come to the head of the
administration. The chief attention of the new
government was now directed towards the emancipa
tion of the canton from the dominion of priesthood,
and more especially of the Jesuits, as also towards
sharing in the general interests of the confederation.
No sooner, however, had government put hand to
the new work of curtailing the extravagant privileges
and immunities of the clergy,* and of introducing
improvements in the national schools, than the
* The priests possessed a privileged jurisdiction, not only
in civil, but also in criminal aifairs. " There is no instance
on record of a punishment inflicted upon a priest. Fraud,
highway robbery, and infanticide were perpetrated by priests ;
and the bishop, after having arrested such criminals, allowed
them to escape from prison." Snell, "Manual of the Swiss
States Eight," II., 846.
262 ANNIHILATION OF THE LIBERAL PARTY.
clergy, headed by the order of St. Ignatius, entered
openly the lists against government. Already, to
wards the end of 1842, the Administration was de
cried from all pulpits as nncatholic and irreligious;
while its decrees concerning school improvements and
distribution of military taxes, by which the exemp
tion of the clergy from the burden was greatly re
stricted, were denounced as so many open attacks
upon religion itself. The Jesuits travelled, moreover,
through the whole country as missionaries, making
the people swear that they would rise en masse at
the very first summons of the clergy. In the interval
between the election of the Grand Council (1843),
the priests and Jesuits neglected no opportunity of
obtaining the majority in their own sense and spirit.
Spreading suspicious rumours against the character
of the truly independent electors who would not bend
their knees to them, circulating slanderous imputa
tions against the liberals, who, they said, were bent
upon abolishing the Catholic religion, in order to
force upon the people the odious Protestant creed,
open bribery, and even assassination, were the weapons
by which they tried and obtained the victory. Thence
forth, the majority of the Grand Council was com-
CRUELTIES TOWARDS THE LIBERALS. 263
posed of men entirely devoted to the interests of the
black-coats.
But the complete annihilation of the liberal party
fell to the task of the aristocracy of Valais, aided
by the clergy. In August, 1843, a coup de main
had been attempted, but failed. To secure success,
the separate and special Catholic alliance (Sonder-
bund) mentioned above, was called into action.
In Luzern, an organised attack upon the liberals
completely succeeded (May, 1844). The liberals
were totally beaten in the battle near Trient, and
few escaped the sword but by flying into the can
ton of Vaud. As usual, the victory of the Jesuits
and their party the expenses of which had been
defrayed by the missionary society at Lyons was
taken advantage of with Jesuitical cruelty. The
capital, Sitten, was for a long time kept in a state
of siege, the whole liberal party disarmed, and the
constitutional liberty of speech and the press, as also
the association right, were suppressed. A special
commission was in addition appointed to judge the
" rebels" before whom, after having been dismissed
their posts, nearly all the liberal members of the
Grand Council were arraigned as private individuals
264 NUMEROUS MEETINGS.
implicated in conspiracy and high treason. The
liberal communities were fined with heavy war
taxes, while all sorts of violence and cruelties were
practised upon the unoffending members of all
classes. By the new constitution framed for the
canton (Sept. 1844), under the auspices of the
Bishop of Sitten and the Jesuits, the power of the
priesthood was more than ever consolidated, and
theocratical intolerance carried so far, as even to
interdict divine service at home to the few remaining
Protestants in the canton. Bishop de Preux, pupil
of the German college at Rome, and Dean de Rivaz,
said in the Grand Council : " The maxim of recipro
cal tolerance militates against the fundamental laws of
the Catholic church, which cannot exercise tolerance
towards the Protestants, she being the only true one ;
but the Protestant church, as she is not the only true
one, cannot refuse tolerance to the former/
Immensely great was the excitement throughout
Switzerland, caused by the above events in Valais,
which was forced to accede to the special alliance
(Sonderbund). It became evident that a religious
and civil war must sooner or later break out in the
confederation, if the society of Jesus, the chief
MOTION REJECTED. 265*
instigators of agitation and insurrection, were not
speedily removed from the country. In numerous
meetings, societies, general assemblies, and in many
addresses to the Grand Councils of the various
cantons, it was resolved, argued, and prayed for the
banishment of the order. The Catholic director of
the Aargau seminary, Keller, was the first who had
the courage to bring the matter under discussion in
the Grand Council of Aargau. His proposition (29th
May, 1844) to move in the forthcoming general Diet
for the expulsion of the Jesuits, was carried by a
majority of 123 against 42 votes. The motion was,
however, negatived (19th August, 1844) in the
general Diet, Basle alone having shown insight and
patriotism in the affair, by seconding the Aargau
motion. How many sad experiences would not
Switzerland have been spared, if her rulers had
then comprehended the spirit of the age, and pos
sessed sufficient courage to eradicate in proper time
the growing cancer in Swiss life. In the midst of the
alarm and consternation produced in the minds of
the majority of the Swiss population by the miscar
riage of that motion, Luzern, as if in derision of
these feelings, resolved to allow the Jesuits to settle
N
266 THE JESUITS AND THE EDUCATION BOARD.
in due form in the canton. Even the lesser council
or government of Luzern, which, as late as the close
of 1843, had opposed the recall of the Jesuits, as
incompatible with the constitution of the canton, and
more particularly as regarded the claim of the pro
vincial of the order, Pater Rothenflue, to render the
order entirely independent of the power of the state
even the government, we say, was not ashamed ten
months afterwards (September, 1844) to conclude a
special treaty with the same provincial, to the effect
that the theological seminary, college, and other
branch institutions were to be transferred to the
disciples of St. Ignatius. By another clause in the
same treaty, every " father" was to receive from the
public treasury an annual allowance of 750 francs,
besides lodgings and other domestic comforts. As
the Grand Council had, however, refused to acknow
ledge their independence of the state, Pater Rothen
flue was obliged to yield that point, and vow to
submit to the control of the Board of Education a
promise which subsequently proved to be ineffectual.
A clause which had been smuggled into the treaty,
allowing the Jesuits to live and act according to the
rules of their order, indisputably annulled the former
GENERAL INDIGNATION. 267
provision. Blind and implicit obedience to the
mandates of their superior, being the fundamental
rule of the order, the members were not, of course,
bound to comply with the instructions of the Board,
whenever they clashed with the sovereign commands
of their general. There was, however, another tri
bunal still left to effect the banishment of the order
the tribunal of the people whose veto was to operate
as a law, according to the provision in the consti
tution. That no means, fair and foul, moral and
physical, were neglected by the Jesuits and their
party to dispose the people in their favour, or to
invalidate the votes of the liberals, we need not
mention. The fatal termination of the liberal cause
by the battle at Trient, however, so intimidated the
majority of the poor electors, that they dared not
register their votes against the Jesuits, without the
risk of being treated as "rebels" or at least as friends
of the " liberal traitor s."
Had the rulers now acted in a generous manner,
they might have morally strengthened their cause, and
introduced their beloved Jesuits into the canton with
out further difficulty or complaint. But, inspired by
the "pious fathers" with the dark spirit of ven-
N 2
268 SECOND DEFEAT OF THE LIBERALS.
geance, the Grand Council abused their victory in
a most barbarous manner, by being bent upon
destroying, root and trunk, all the anti-Jesuitical
elements in the canton. The reign of terror which
now prevailed in the canton forced several thousand
individuals to emigrate to other parts of the con
federation. The sympathy with which they met
wherever they arrived, and the still greater com
passion evinced for their ill-treated or imprisoned
brethren at home, soon assumed the character of
extreme indignation against the deplorable cowardice
manifested by the General Diet, which had been
convoked by the new Vorort Zurich (24th Feb. 1845).
The Diet had declined to interfere in matters con
nected with the reign of terror at Luzern, and re
fused even to protest against the introduction of the
Jesuits into that canton, though it was well known,
that all the mischief done in the canton was solely
the work of the Jesuits, who were now threatening
the whole confederation with civil war and even dis
solution. The result of the weakness shown by the
Diet, was a second expedition of the liberals (1st
April, 1845) against the Luzern reign of terror,
which proved not more successful than the previous.
REACTION AGAINST THE ORDER. 269
The cruelties again committed on the vanquished,
beggar all description, and only show the deep feel
ing of hostility to which these "simple children of
the mountains " have become wedded by the instiga
tion of the Jesuits and priesthood, who alone were
the authors of those horrible misdeeds, by having
represented the liberals as atheists and Jacobines,
who had come to rob them of their greatest treasure,
the religion of their fathers. Exactly five months
after this second victory (1st November, 1845) the
Jesuits were solemnly installed in the capital of
the canton. In the address delivered on that oc
casion by the director of Luzern, Siegwart-Miiller,
it was said, amongst other things, that " no power,
in whatever guise, by whatever cunning, fraud, or
even the sword, will ever be able to destroy the
order. It is built upon God and his Church; it
stands under the protection of the state and under
the patronage of a sovereign people, while it bears
within itself the most potent guarantees for lasting
existence/ ....
These boastful prophecies were, however, destined
not to be fulfilled. The very triumph of the Jesuits
and their party in Luzern, laid the foundation for
270 THE DIET IRRESOLVED.
events which not only caused the fall of the order
and the whole ultramontane party in Switzerland,
but even changed the whole aspect and character of
the Swiss confederation. While, on the one hand,
the Sonderbund, under the guidance of the Loyolites,
was arming itself for further extension of its rights,
threatening civil war and a total separation from the
confederation, the eyes of even the zealous Catholics
were, on the other hand, opened to the mischievous
workings of the order, and public opinion in the
majority of the cantons pronounced itself most de
cidedly on the subject. It had become too evident
to be doubted, that the Jesuits, those foreign in
truders, intended not only to form the cantons go
verned by them, into a separate independent union,
but also to conquer and subjugate afterwards, through
these cantons, the whole confederation collectively.
Tn April, 1846, the Diet met and discussed about
the banishment of the Jesuits and the suppression
of the Sonderbund, but could not come to a final re
solution. The efforts of the middle classes were now
directed in nearly all the cantons to the chief point
to bring to the helm of the state, men of decided
liberal principles and opinions. At Zurich, Berne, and
DECISION AND RESISTANCE. .271
Basle, the object in view was effected in a quiet and
constitutional way, while in Geneva it only succeeded
by means of a sanguinary revolution. In conse
quence of these changes, the Diet passed (July, 1847)
the resolution, that the Sonderbund was an illegal
union, and must therefore be dissolved. On the
other hand, the seven Sonderbund cantons Luzern,
Friburg, Schwyz, Uri, Unterwalden, Zug, and Valais,
declared that they were resolved to oppose that
decision by all the might in their power. As it
was well known that this illegal and daring oppo
sition was solely the work of the Jesuits and their
friends, the Diet ordered (5th Sept. 1847) the
total banishment of the Loyolites from the confede
ration. As may be supposed, the latter were far from
obeying the order, and appealed to the sentiments of
their protecting cantons. This resistance was the
more unjustifiable, and even venturesome, when we
consider that the whole population of Switzerland
consists of 1,953,000 Protestants and only 980,000
Catholics, of which latter number only 427,000 be
longed to the Sonderbund, and even one-third of this
small number ranked amongst the liberal party. The
sly fathers were probably not ignorant of the mispro-
BANISHMENT OF THE JESUITS.
portion of their supporters, but they set their hopes
on the European diplomacy, on the succour to be
.tendered to them by the political combinations of
some of the European courts. It was Louis Phi
lippe and Metternich in particular, who approved of
this Jesuitical conspiracy against the legitimate
power of Switzerland, in order to weaken once more
the political development of that confederation.
They not only encouraged and supported the Son-
derbund by words and means, but they also pre
vented Pope Pius IX. from interfering in the affair,
while they threw, in addition, all sorts of obstacles,
by threats and intrigues, in the way of the exe
cutive power, not to allow the decision of the Diet
to be carried into effect. The Diet, however,
remained firm and acted up to its resolution, despite
all those hindrances ; and public opinion in Europe
was not slow in applauding the measure in the face
of cabinets and diplomatists. All attempts at recon
ciliation being exhausted, the Diet confirmed (4th
Nov. 1847) its previous resolutions, and ordered the
confederate army into the field, which soon destroyed
the whole fabric of the Sonderbund and the Jesuiti
cal machinery. The canton Friburg was the first
DISSOLUTION OF THE SONDERBUND. 273
to be vanquished by the confederate army, and
on the 19th November (1847) the provisional go
vernment of that canton decreed, that all the
Jesuits, and their branch and kindred societies,
should be banished from the land, and their pro
perty confiscated for the benefit of the public exche
quer. Luzern, and with it the whole of the Sender -
bund, having submitted, after a defeat at the battle
(on the 2nd November) near Gislikonbriicke, issued
decrees to the same effect, while in Schwyz the
people even indulged in excesses against the Jesuit
establishments as soon as they saw the sad turn
which affairs were taking in the other rebellious
cantons. As for the Loyolites, they did not wait for
extremes, but decamped everywhere with their port
able treasures at the approach of danger, across the
frontier, to France, Italy, and Germany. In the
revised constitution of Luzern (13th Feb. 1848) it
was specially provided, "That the Jesuits and their
affiliated orders were never more to be received m
the canton under any form or pretence whatever/
N3
274? THE JESUITS SINCE 1848.
THE JESUITS SINCE THE REVOLUTIONS
OF 1848.
WITH their banishment from Switzerland, the punish
ment of the Jesuits was far from being exhausted.
The civilised world in Europe was enabled by that
political drama in Switzerland, to apprehend the exact
extent of the diabolic power and the whole ma
chinery of the order. Europe has learned, that the
pious fathers of the nineteenth century were, like
their predecessors in the previous centuries, the same
daring and sworn enemies of moral and political
liberty, of peace and quiet development of states and
nations. It wanted indeed but the least agitation,
the least clashing contact in society, to see the Jesuits
experience also in other countries the retributions
with which they were visited in Switzerland. The
glorious victory which the confederation had won,
not only over the Jesuits and Catholic priesthood, but
also over the despotic policy of Metternich and his
colleagues, no doubt contributed much to the almost
general rise in Europe in 1848 a year in which
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. 275
also the order of St. Ignatius was fated to experience
the wrath and revenge of the Catholic nations on
the one hand, and the weakness, fall, and vicissitudes
of its previous patrons and supporters on the other.
As we have already observed, it was the Swiss events
in particular, which brought to maturity the out
break of the February revolution in France, by which
the Jesuits were for a while scared away from the
country. The carelessness of the republican Govern
ment, it is true, allowed them a few loopholes, whence
they could act upon the southern provinces in parti
cular ; but the total change which has since taken
place in the dynasty of the French monarchy, has
also paralysed their zeal and efforts in that quarter,
and hardly anything important has since been heard
of their operations in that land of their previous
adventures and golden harvests.
From the rise of Italy, which immediately followed
the February revolution in France, resulted one of
the most remarkable phenomena in Catholic history,
the ignominious, though only temporary, destruction
of the order in the very heart of the Catholic world.
The movement against the order, whose immense in
fluence during the pontificate of Gregory XVI. had
PIUS IX. AND HIS REFORMS.
weighed so heavily upon the whole of Italy, nay, upon
the whole of Catholic Christendom,, had virtually
begun with the accession of Pius IX. (16th June,
1846) and his reforms in the church states. Both
the clergy and the people hated the Jesuits, not only
for their lust of money and dominion, but also and
chiefly for their alliance and co-operation with the
Austrian policy; they were regarded as enemies of
all national, political, and even social development.
It became clear, that it was only the order, with its
affiliated societies, which had put unsurpassable
obstacles in the way of the new pope s reformatory
efforts, and rendered his measures uncertain and
vacillating. The personal position of Pius IX.
towards the powerful order was one of great diffi
culty. Little as he liked them, he was compelled to
treat the members with delicacy and the utmost in
dulgence, and even to observe a strict neutrality in
the affairs of Switzerland, in order to preserve his
own life, tiara, and power. It was only after the
events in Italy had begun to menace his own worldly
position, that Pius IX. had ventured upon the deci
sive step against the Jesuit order, whose members
(by the by), though maltreated and banished for a
OUTBREAKS AGAINST THE ORDER. 277
while even from Austria and Italy, soon found their
way back again, with the restoration of order and
the reactionary change in these countries.
The (compulsory) political conversion of king
Charles Albert, the revolution in Sardinia, and the
insurrection of Lombardy against the Austrian sove
reignty, had, in the month of March 1848, freed
Upper Italy of the disciples of Loyola. Already, in
February of the same year, the popular movement in
Sardinia, and more especially at Turin, against the
Jesuits, had assumed such a threatening character,
that government enjoined (2nd March) the pious
fathers to quit their establishments with the least
noise possible. The same evening, sad excesses were
committed by the mob in the Jesuit college at Turin,
while a few days afterwards, the paters were forcibly
expelled from their settlement at Chieri, a small town
near Turin. Simultaneously with these occurrences,
public rage had also broken out at Genoa against the
Jesuits, who were considered by the people as the
enemies and traitors of the national cause. After
the February revolution in France, the Genoese saw
almost every day Jesuit refugees arrive at their
shores, whither also those from the Sardinian pro-
278 GENOESE JESUITS.
vinces had made their way, sure of the protection of
the Genoese government, and a hospitable reception
by their colleagues there, with whom they intended
to form a compact resisting body against the stormy
times. The Genoese Jesuits had even declared to
government that they were willing to send to the
field at their own cost 700 bayonets, a declaration
which no doubt tended to increase still more the
popular indignation against them. On the evening of
the 1st of March, when another batch of more than
twenty paters were expected to arrive, the crowds
moved towards the square of the Jesuit college, and
having forced the latter, and found the inmates flown,
they vented their feelings on the monastic ward
robe, the cowls, girdles, dresses, &c., of the Jesuits,
which they hurled pcle mele into the open road.
Among the documents and correspondence found in
the college, were also sketches of march routes, cross-
ways, and by-paths sketches which highly compro
mised the Jesuits, evidencing their connection with
the Austrian government. It was also ascertained
that the paters had received large sums of money from
men of high rank, to be employed for political pur
poses, of which sums 84,000 lire had been spent by
DOCUMENTS FOUND. 279
them in the last two months for secret services.
Since the commencement of the catastrophe, the
paters had, however, been taken safely, together with
their treasures, by the governor of the place, to
a ship in the harbour, where they remained secure
from bodily violence. It is said, that the documents
and other papers found in the dwellings of the Jesuits
had greatly contributed to the line of policy adopted
by Charles Albert towards Austria, and that also Pius
IX. had entirely withdrawn (for awhile) his protec
tion from the order, in consequence of these docu
mentary revelations. On the 19th of July, 1848, the
Sardinian Chamber decreed the permanent expulsion
of the order or orders from the kingdom. The native
Jesuits alone were allowed to remain on a small pay,
if. they consented to be secularised. The property of
the order was confiscated for the public treasury.
Also at Naples, the month of March 1848 proved
inauspicious to the Jesuits. In the midst of the
political agitation, the Jesuits were not forgotten, and
their friend, Ferdinand II., found it even necessary
to counsel Pater Roothaan to withdraw his subordi
nates from Naples, their presence being irreconcile-
able with the new constitution of the country. The
280 NAPLES AND SICILY.
paters, however, were slow to act upon the advice,
until they saw that thousands of the mob were daily
crowding before their dwellings, hissing, hooting and
whistling, as a sort of preparation for serious deeds
of real harm and injury ; they then thought it more
safe to quit the capital before it was too late. On
the llth of March they repaired in thirty carriages,
under the protection of an armed soldiery, but also
under the threats of the crowds, to the harbour,
where they embarked, but lingered for some time
about the coast.
Also in revolutionised Sicily, the Jesuits were
looked upon as enemies of freedom and the national
cause, and the people therefore insisted upon their
removal. The paters, it is true, had declared them
selves, in a proclamation to the inhabitants, as warm
patriots ; but no reliance was placed in their verbal
assurance, in the then critical position of the island.
On the 31st of July, the Sicilian parliament enacted
the banishment of the order. The foreign paters
were sent away, and their property sequestered, while
the native members were allowed to remain on a
small pension.
As in Upper Italy, so also at Rome, and in the
THE JESUITS AT ROME. 281
whole of the papal states, the popular demonstrations
against the Jesuits had assumed, under the very eyes
of the pope, a very serious character. The people
insisted in unequivocal terms upon the removal of
these enemies of a better future. In the course
of the month of March, the pope had frequent inter
views with Pater Roothaan, telling him that it was
absolutely necessary to withdraw the unpopular
members from the state, in order to avoid popular
excesses at the forthcoming promulgation of the con
stitution. A few left in real earnest the Eternal City,
in the nights of the 10th and llth March, while
others only made preparations for departure. In the
meanwhile, an imprudent Jesuit, having used in his
sermons harsh expressions against the reforms and
the national movement, the people, and even the pope
himself, became so exasperated, that a papal decree
appeared (29th March) ordering the banishment of
the order and sequestration of its property. As
usual, the native members were allowed to remain
under condition of secularisation. The college Ro-
manum was restored to the secular clergy, and the
other Jesuit establishments came into possession of
other hands. In the papal provinces, the Jesuits
282 REACTION.
experienced the same fate as at Rome. The pope
had preferred banishing to abolishing the order,
probably to satisfy the people more speedily, since
the process of suppression would have required
lengthy investigations and formalities before it could
be accomplished. Later events, however, have left
the impression, that Pius IX. was not so inimically
disposed towards the order as he would have the
people believe, since with the restoration of tran
quillity by the French troops, the Jesuits have
also returned to their old domiciles and establish
ments, mischief and intrigues. Be this, however, as
it may, in a practical point of view there could have
been no material difference between banishment and
suppression of the order, since no pope is bound
to keep intact the resolves of his predecessors, as
was the case with the order in 1773 and again in
1814.
The Pater-General Roothaan sailed with a consi
derable number of his subordinates to England,
where Lord Clifford and other Catholic magnates
are said to haye put at their disposal some of their
castles or country seats, while a great many more
crossed the ocean to seek new spheres of operation
DISCOVERY AT VIENNA. 283
in the western hemisphere. Also in Germany and
Austria the events of 1848 were severely felt by
the Jesuits under their various masks and names,
though in Catholic Austria their expulsion was only
partial and incomplete. In Bavaria, a Government
decree (February 17, 1848) abolished the so-called
Redemptorist mission at Altotting, but allowed a
small pension to those paters who were willing to em
bark and continue their missionary labours in America.
At Vienna, after the fall of Metternich, the hated
Ligorians were enjoined to quit the metropolis and
the country generally; being slow in departing, the
people stormed (6th April, 1848) their cloister, and
menaced even their lives. Both the male and female
Ligorians were thereupon packed into waggons and
removed from town, under the escort of the national
guard. An official investigation of their affairs pro
cured a good insight into the relations of the pious
fathers. Among the documents and other papers
which they left behind, were found several promis
sory notes, payable to the order of Archduke Maxi
milian Este, and in the cellars were found large
stores of wine, also registered in the name of that
arch patron of the Jesuits. Their cashbook showed,
284 BANISHMENT FROM AUSTRIA.
that they had received monthly subscriptions from
pious individuals, to be distributed amongst the
poor, but which the paters had employed in the
purchase of stocks on the Exchange for their own
account. Minute search in the cloister also re
vealed visible traces of crimes and debauchery,
unfit for publication. A few clays afterwards (10th
April) the Jesuits were ordered to quit Linz, while
the people drove them forcibly from their settle
ments in Styria and the Archduchy of Austria. To
prevent further disturbances, Emperor Ferdinand
ordered (8th May, 1848), at the proposal of the
Cabinet Council, the entire abolition of the Society
of the Jesuits or Ligorians throughout the whole
kingdom. Such an order was, however, more easily
issued than executed, as the Jesuits possessed in
the royal family itself, and more especially among
the fair sex of the high aristocracy, many old faithful
friends and influential patrons, who continued to pro
tect them, and to be devoted to their cause heart and
soul. Even in Vienna itself, they were not long in
reintroducing themselves clandestinely, and so they
did at Linz, where they worked and conspired
against public order and tranquillity. In Galicia
RETURN OF THE ORDER. 285
their expulsion was easily effected in July, 1848, but in
Tyrol it met with many difficulties, Government there
having declared their determination not to accede to
the imperial decree of banishment. A monster pe
tition, signed by nearly the whole population, was at
the same time also forwarded to the head adminis
tration at "Vienna, in which the withdrawal of the
cabinet order (8th May) was insisted upon, rather
than prayed for. It furnishes the historian with a
new proof of the dangerous influence of the Jesuits,
even in those countries where the people at first
evince great antipathy towards them.
With the political reaction, however, since 1849,
the Jesuits have made their reappearance in all the
states whence they had fled or been expelled at the
outbreak of the revolutions; they are now almost
everywhere safely re-established, and are again work
ing their way, secretly and successfully, to the hearts
and pockets of the credulous and bigoted.
Let no nation, however great its political freedom,
fancy itself safe against the intrigues of these mo
nastic adventurers. No democratic constitution can
prove a sufficient safeguard against their diabolical
power and machinations. They know, as their history
286 RETURN OF THE ORDER.
in Belgium and other countries has proved, how to
turn to their own advantage every constitutional law
framed in the spirit of liberty and public welfare, and
the only bulwark against the baneful power of the
disciples of Loyola is to be found in those institu
tions which secure to the future generations a sound
religious and humane education.
THE END.
LONDON :
PKINTED BT WILLIAM STEVENS, 37, BELL YAKD,
TEMPLE BAB.
Now ready, in One Volume, Royal 8vo., price 3s. 6d.,
WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIVE STEEL ENGRAVINGS,
WOMAN S EDUCATIONAL MISSION:
BEING AN EXPLANATION OF
FEEDEEICK FEOBEL S SYSTEM OF INFANT
GAEDENS.
" Come, let us live for our children." F. FROBEL.
Of late years public attention has been particularly directed to the exten
sive improvement of the education of ail classes. The Educational Exhibi
tion of the Society of Arts in St. Martin s Hall, in the year 1854, tended to
give an additional impulse to the great educational movement. Amongst
the variety of objects there exhibited, Frederick Frobel s games and occupa
tions for early childhood attracted general notice. Since the closing of the
Exhibition, his method of instruction has not only been made a subject of in
vestigation by those who are engaged in the matter of education, but, m
consequence of the satisfactory explanation of his system that has been given
before the most competent judges, by those Germans who have imported it
from Germany, his principles of instruction have been adopted, and are now
being carried into operation in some of the most distinguished educational
establishments in the metropolis. The demand that has thus been raised tor
a translation of some German worlcs explanatory of Frobel s method of in
struction, is the inducement to offer the present little volume to the English
public. It has been translated from the original of the Baroness von Maren-
holtz the same lady who sent Frobel s inventions for the use ot children to
the Exhibition-and it is to be hoped that it may be followed by a transla
tion of Frobel s own works, in order that an intelligent public may obtain a
more perfect and detailed account of that system, which is in every way cal
culated to produce an extensive and sweeping reformation in education in
general.
DARTON S EDUCATIONAL PRINTS.
ONE SHILLING EACH.
Sold by all Book and Printsellers, and sent by post (on receipt of
Stamps) from 58, Holborn Hill.
STANDARD FLAGS, Printed in Oil Colours and Gold, on a large
SIXTEEN ANIMALS, from designs by HARBISON WEIR, on one
large Sheet. Printed in Oil Colours.
Also, beautifully Coloured by Hand, one sheet each.
The Dog, and his Uses, The Cotton Plant in all its
The Horse, and his Employments.
The Cow, and her Uses to Man.
The Ship, and its Parts.
Shells, their Beauties and Uses.
Insects, their Beauties and Uses.
The Camel, and its Uses.
The Elephant, and its Uses to
Man.
The Whale, and its Uses to Man.
The British Sovereigns, from
William the Conqueror to Vic
toria, with the Crowns and
Coronets of England.
Tegetmeier s Classification of Or
ganized Bodies, after Cuvier
and Decandolle, on a large
Sheet, many Illustrations.
LONDON : DARTON & CO., 58, HOLBORN HILL.
Just published, One Volume, Pout Svo. cloth, 5s.
ENGLAND:
SINCE
THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA.
BEING
An Historical Resum of the Parliamentary Proceedings and the
Successive Development of the Resources and
Social Condition of the Country,
FOLLOWED BY
STATISTICAL TABLES FROM OFFICIAL RECORDS.
BY DR. MICHELSEN,
Author of " Modern Jesuitism ;" the " Ottoman Empire;"
" Life of Nicholas I.," &c.
OPINIONS OF THE PEESS.
" The careful epitome will be welcome to those who would have at
hand a sketch of the great series of reforms that have occupied the
last fifteen years." Athenaeum.
" The leading features of public opinion, legislative facts, and es
pecially the economical results of legislation, are exhibited succinctly,
neatly, and in a very readable manner." Spectator.
" Of immense value as a book of historical reference." Examiner.
" The volume consists of three distinct portions : an historical re
sume of the Parliamentary and Ministerial Proceedings since the
accession of her Majesty; a collection of important and statistical
tables embracing the period from 1800 to 1853, carefully compiled;
and an historical survey of the progress of Political Economy, espe
cially in relation to the conflicting principles of Protection and Free
Trade, which is principally remarkable for bringing under notice the
doctrines of Muller and List, two German writers of celebrity/
Economist.
" To all who are anxious to obtain almost at a glance a sketch of
the public political history of this country for the last seventeen
years, we cordially recommend Mr. Michelsen s intelligent and impar
tial compilation." Observer.
LONDON : DARTON & CO., 58, HOLBORN HILL.
CAVEN LIBRARY
KNOX COLLEGE
TORONTO
CAVEN LiaRARY
KNOX COUcGE
TORONTO
