S

The last and most effectual regicide, which these fathers employed, was that bold and bloody villain Ravaillac, who gave Henry IV. his mortal stab, on May 14, 1610, after he had escaped above fifty conspiracies, most of them (as the Sieur Puffendorf remarks,) contrived by priests against his life. That the Jesuits employed this mur

they possessed thirty-one provinces, by his own confession, bred up twenty-one professed houses, thirty- among the Jesuits in their king-killing three noviciates, ninety-six residential doctrine; and being persuaded by houses, and two hundred and ninety- them, that the murder of king Henry three colleges, besides their first col- IV. would atone for all his past sins, lege, which they pretend was in the and merit heaven, he attempted it by womb of the Virgin Mary. These stabbing that monarch in the mouth Jesuits are much the most dangerous with a knife; which occasioned this vermin of all those who pretend to the remarkable sayings of the king'sname of Religious, inasmuch as they "It seems then, that it is not enough declare, no villany, no treachery, nor that the mouths of so many good men cruelty, to be criminal, provided it have testified against the Jesuits as tends to the benefit of their society. my enemies, if they be not also conAnd by this means, whenever a nation demned by my own mouth." It was is so unfortunate as to be overrun with for this fact that these ghostly fathers this diabolical crew, no one member were || banished France, and a column of the community can promise himself was erected on the very place where the a security either to his life, honour, or parricide's house stood, in memory of estate. Nay, the sacred person of a them, and of their assassin disciples. monarch is not exempted from danger, when he is once become an object of Jesuitical spleen; as was notoriously manifested in the whole series of the reign of king Henry IV. of France, whose life was many times attempted by these ghostly fathers, before they accomplished their wicked ends. To pass over many others, I shall only mention three of their most remark-derer, we have the testimony of that able conspiracies. The first was that of † Peter Barriere, a soldier, engaged to commit the murder by Christopher Abre, curate of St. Andre des Ares, and by Varade, the rector of the Jesuits' College. The former told him, "that by such an act, he would gain great glory, and paradise.” The latter, "that the enterprise was most holy, and that with good constancy and courage, he ought to confess himself, and receive the blessed sacrament," which he accordingly did; and being thus Jesuitically prepared, he embarked in the attempt, but, whilst he was watching an opportunity to put his bloody design in execution, was timely discovered, and received the due reward of his villany.

*

The second conspirator was Jean Chastel, son to a draper in Paris, and

* Charles Ridierra of Ghent, Peter Anger, Clement Odin, Nicholas Anglois, were all of them engaged at different times to murder this king.

great and learned man, Father Paul, who lived at that time; and, as he was counsellor of state to the republic of Venice, was perfectly well acquainted with the intrigues of all the courts of Europe. He tells us in his ¶ Letters, that the Jesuits were the trainers up of Ravaillacs and king-killers, and that they were the ** authors of the death of this great prince.

It were tedious to enumerate the murders, treasons, rebellions, blasphemies, and such like crimes, for which this society has been banished out of France, from Dantzic, from the Venetian territories, out of Thorn and Cracovia, and Bohemia; not to mention that inhuman ††+ contrivance of theirs in England, to blow up both a king and parliament at once.

It has been a topic which the ill de

of the common peace, and enemies to the king and state, within the space of three days after the publication of this present decree, depart out of Paris, and all other towns of France, &c. under the penalty of High Treason. Dated

+ Vide Thuanus. Memoir de la Ligue. Vol. 6. Jes. Cut. Dec. 29, 1594. Signed DU TILLET." fol. 205.

Memoir du Sully, tom. 1, page 270. The decree of Parliament runs thus: "The said Court doth likewise ordain, that the priests and students of the college of Claremont, and all others calling themselves of the Society of Jesus, shall, as corrupters of youth, disturbers

¶ Letter 102. ** Letters 47 and 54. ++ The Gunpowder Treason Plot was hatched about the year 1605, by Henry Garnet, Oswald Tesmond, and John Gerrard, Jesuits: the first of whom was their Provincial hero, and is now sainted by the Papists. Vide Act Parliament, 3d James I. cap. 1, 2.

ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES FOR
MAY. BY AN OBSERVER.

THE Sun enters Gemini on the 21st, at
seven minutes past five in the morn-
ing. The Moon enters her last quarter
on the 5th; she is new on the 12th;
enters her first quarter on the 20th, and
is full on the 27th. She will pass the
Georgian planet on the 1st, Jupiter on
the 7th, Saturn on the 8th, Mercury on
the 9th, Venus on the 15th, Mars and
Ceres on the 11th, and the Georgian
planet again on the 29th. Venus is
an evening star, at her greatest elonga-
tion, or greatest distance from the Sun,
on the 20th.
She sets on the 1st, at
forty-two minutes past eleven, and on
the 31st, at thirty-four minutes past
eleven. She is first seen at the head
of the constellation of the Bull, above
the sixth, or tip of the southern horn;
and she passes between the tenth of
the Waggoner and the seventh of the
Twins on the 6th, but nearest to the
former star. She directs her course
above the fifth of the Twins, within a
degree, from which star she passes on
the 12th. On the 26th, she passes the
second of the Twins, and directs her
course to the nebula in the Crab, stop-
ping short of the twelfth of this con-
stellation, being then nearly in a line
with the two first of the Twins. Mars
sets on the 1st at fifty-nine minutes
past one in the morning, and on the
31st, at twenty-three minutes past
twelve. He is first seen above and
near to the nebula in the Crab, and he
directs his course through the barren
space between the Crab and the Lion
to Regulus, passing under the eleventh
of this constellation on the 21st, and
above the fourteenth on the 27th.
Ceres is seen on the 1st under the
foot of the Lynx, above and near to
the small star called the seventeenth
of the Crab; and Mars passed her
this day, at the distance of about eight
degrees and a half. She is directing
her course to the small stars in the
head of the Lion, passing under the
tenth, the most western of them, on
the 22d; and she finishes her course
above the eleventh of this constella-
tion. The Georgian planet is on the
meridian on the 1st at nineteen mi-
nutes past three in the morning, and
on the 31st at ten minutes past one.
When on the meridian, he is almost
directly over the third of the Archer,
having the twelfth above him to the

east, and being nearest to this latter star. Jupiter rises on the 1st at five minutes past three in the morning, and on the 31st at twelve minutes past one. He is first seen on the eastern margin of the stream from the Urn, about a degree east from the twentysecond of the Water-bearer; and his course is in the barren space under the four stars in square. Saturn rises on the 1st at fifty minutes past four in the morning, and on the 31st at fiftyfour minutes past one. From the unfavourableness of his position, he will not be visible the, beginning of the month. He finishes his course under the fourth of the Fishes, about four degrees from it. Mercury rises on the 1st at seven minutes past four in the morning, and on the 31st at seventeen minutes past three. He is at his greatest elongation on the 10th. From his unfavourable position, he will not be visible the whole of the month.

HISTORICAL FACTS RESPECTING
POPERY.

[Concluded from col. 216.]

Besides the religious orders which we have mentioned, had it not been for the glorious Reformation wrought by Prince Henry VIII. we might have expected to feel one plague more, much exceeding all the rest; I mean the Jesuits, who sprang up in the year of our Lord 1540. Their first founder was Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier, who collecting together all the different Monastic rules of preceding orders, added thereunto some extraordinary ones of his own, particularly this; that the general, provincials, and superiors of his order, may dispense with all laws human and divine, dissolve all oaths and vows, and free men from the obligation of all rules and decrees." They were called Jesuits, from a pretended + vision of God the Father, who appeared visibly to St. Ignatius Loyola, and desired his Son Jesus Christ, who stood by loaden with a heavy cross, to take a special care both of him and his companions, which Christ promised he would not fail to do at Rome. This pestiferous sect multiplied so fast, that in the year 1608 Ribadiniera reckons that

* Hospinian de Virg. Jesuit lib. 1. 2.

+ Ribadin. Vit. St. Ignat. Petrus Muffacus. Vit. St. Ignat. lib. 2. cap. 5.

that the mouths of so many good men have testified against the Jesuits as my enemies, if they be not also condemned by my own mouth." It was for this fact that these ghostly fathers were || banished France, and a column was erected on the very place where the parricide's house stood, in memory of them, and of their assassin disciples.

The last and most effectual regicide, which these fathers employed, was that bold and bloody villain Ravaillac, who gave Henry IV. his mortal stab, on May 14, 1610, after he had escaped above fifty conspiracies, most of them (as the Sieur Puffendorf remarks,) contrived by priests against his life. That the Jesuits employed this mur

they possessed thirty-one provinces, by his own confession, bred up twenty-one professed houses, thirty- among the Jesuits in their king-killing three noviciates, ninety-six residential doctrine; and being persuaded by houses, and two hundred and ninety- them, that the murder of king Henry three colleges, besides their first col- IV. would atone for all his past sins, lege, which they pretend was in the and merit heaven, he attempted it by womb of the Virgin Mary. These stabbing that monarch in the mouth Jesuits are much the most dangerous with a knife; which occasioned this vermin of all those who pretend to the remarkable sayings of the king'sname of Religious, inasmuch as they" It seems then, that it is not enough declare, no villany, no treachery, nor cruelty, to be criminal, provided it tends to the benefit of their society. And by this means, whenever a nation is so unfortunate as to be overrun with this diabolical crew, no one member of the community can promise himself a security either to his life, honour, or estate. Nay, the sacred person of a monarch is not exempted from danger, when he is once become an object of Jesuitical spleen; as was notoriously manifested in the whole series of the reign of king Henry IV. of France, whose life was many times attempted by these ghostly fathers, before they accomplished their wicked ends. To pass over many others, I shall only mention three of their most remark-derer, we have the testimony of that able conspiracies. The first was that of Peter Barriere, a soldier, engaged to commit the murder by Christopher Abre, curate of St. Andre des Ares, and by Varade, the rector of the Jesuits' College. The former told him, "that by such an act, he would gain great glory, and paradise." The latter, "that the enterprise was most holy, and that with good constancy and courage, he ought to confess himself, and receive the blessed sacrament," which he accordingly did; and being thus Jesuitically prepared, he embarked in the attempt, but, whilst he was watching an opportunity to put his bloody design in execution, was timely discovered, and received the due reward of his villany.

*

The second conspirator was Jean Chastel, son to a draper in Paris, and

*Charles Ridierra of Ghent, Peter Anger, Clement Odin, Nicholas Anglois, were all of them engaged at different times to murder this king.

great and learned man, Father Paul, who lived at that time; and, as he was counsellor of state to the republic of Venice, was perfectly well acquainted with the intrigues of all the courts of Europe. He tells us in his ¶Letters, that the Jesuits were the trainers up of Ravaillacs and king-killers, and that they were the ** authors of the death of this great prince.

It were tedious to enumerate the murders, treasons, rebellions, blasphemies, and such like crimes, for which this society has been banished out of France, from Dantzic, from the Venetian territories, out of Thorn and Cracovia, and Bohemia; not to mention that inhuman ++ contrivance of theirs in England, to blow up both a king and parliament at once.

It has been a topic which the ill de

1

of the common peace, and enemies to the king and state, within the space of three days after the publication of this present decree, depart out of Paris, and all other towns of France, &c. under the penalty of High Treason. Dated

† Vide Thuanus. Memoir de la Ligue. Vol. 6. Jes. Cut. Dec. 29, 1594. Signed DU TILLET." fol. 205.

Memoir du Sully, tom. 1, page 270. The decree of Parliament runs thus: "The said Court doth likewise ordain, that the priests and students of the college of Claremont, and all others calling themselves of the Society of Jesus, shall, as corrupters of youth, disturbers

Letter 102. ** Letters 47 and 54. ++ The Gunpowder Treason Plot was hatched about the year 1605, by Henry Garnet, Oswald Tesmond, and John Gerrard, Jesuits: the first of whom was their Provincial hero, and is now sainted by the Papists. Vide Act Parliament, 3d James I. cap. 1, 2.

signing Jacobites have delighted to urge against our Protestant Dissenters, that they were the cause of the murder of one of our kings; an action which they both condemn and detest.

The following is the Jesuits' manner of consecrating both the persons and weapons employed for the murdering of kings and princes, by them accounted heretics, as it is extant in an original process, printed at Delph, by John Andrea, bookseller, and quoted by Hospinian in his History of the Jesuits, page 366, in the Zurich edition.

this blessed +vessel with eternal glory, and daily offer to him (for it is but a small reward) the crown of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the holy patriarchs and martyrs. He is no more concerned among us, he is now of your celestial fraternity. And thou, O God most terrible and inaccessible, who yet hast revealed to this instrument of thine, in thy dedicated place of our prayer and meditation, that such a prince is to be cut off as a tyrant and a heretic, and his dominions to be translated to another line; confirm and strengthen, we beseech thee, this instrument of thine, whom we have consecrated and dedicated to that sacred office, that he may be able to accomplish thy will. Grant him the habergeon of thy divine omnipotency, that he may be enabled to escape the hands of his pursuers. Give him wings, that he may avoid the designs of all that lie in wait for his destruction. Infuse into his soul the beams of thy consolation, to uphold and sustain the weak fabric of his body; that, contemning all fears, he may be able to shew a cheerful and lively countenance in the midst of present torments, or prolonged imprisonments; and that he may sing and re

"The person whose silly reasons the Jesuits have overcome with their more potent arguments, is immediately conducted into their Sanctum Sanctorum, designed for prayer and meditation. There the dagger is produced, carefully wrapped up in a linen safeguard, inclosed in an ivory sheath, engraven with several enigmatical characters, and accompanied with an Agnus Dei: certainly a most monstrous copulation, so unadvisedly to intermix the height of murderous villany, and the most sacred emblem of meekness, together. "The dagger being unsheathed, is hypocritically bedewed with holy water; and the handle, adorned with a certain number of coral beads, put into his hand; thereby ascertaining the credu-joice, with a more than ordinary exultlous fool, that as many effectual stabs as he gives the assassinated prince, so many souls he should redeem out of purgatory on his own account. Then they deliver the dagger into the parricide's hand, with a solemn recommendation in these words.

"Elected son of God, receive the sword of Jephtha, the *sword of Samson, the sword of David wherewith he smote off the head of Goliath, the sword of Gideon, the sword of Judith, the sword of the Maccabees, the sword of Pope Julius II., wherewith he cut off the lives of several princes, his enemies, filling whole cities with slaughter and blood: go prosper, prudently courageous; and the Lord strengthen thy arm." Which being pronounced, they all fall upon their knees, and the superior of the Jesuits pronounces the following exorcism: " Attend, O ye cherubims; descend and be present, O seraphims; ; you thrones, you powers, you holy angels, come down and fill

* Which was the jaw-bone of an Ass. + The parricide.

That James Clement was accounted a blessed

ation, whatever death he undergoes.”

"This exorcism being finished, the parricide is brought to the altar, over which at that time hangs a picture containing the story of James Clement, a Dominican Friar, with the figures of several angels protecting and conducting him to heaven. This picture the Jesuits shew their cully; and at the same time presenting him with a celestial coronet, rehearse these words-" Lord, look down, and behold this arm of thine, the executioner of thy justice; let all thy saints arise, and give place to him:" which ceremonies being ended, there are only five Jesuits deputed to converse with, and keep the parricide company; who, in their common discourse, make it their business, upon all occasions, to fill his ears with their divine wheedles making him believe that a certain celestial splendour shines in his countenance, by the beams whereof they are so overawed, as to throw them

martyr, for his barbarous murder of king Henry III. of France, appears from Spondanus, an. 1589, sec. 17.