and virtue; that, by a base indulgence, they promise impunity to the most flagrant crimes; that there was no conscience, however erroneous, which might not obtain peace, if it would confide in them; and that, in short, their doctrines, inimical to all order, had equally resisted the power of kings and the authority of the hierarchy."

The University also published Les Vérités Académiques (a work of above 350 pages), in order to shew that the public would sustain no injury by the suppression of jesuitical instruction. In this work, the defects of the Jesuits' system of education, both in the higher and lower classes, are exposed with much force and ability, as also their mode of teaching philosophy and theology both scholastic and moral, with their errors in the government of the souls confided to them, and the faults of their public preaching.

'With regard to the excesses of the Jesuits in point of morals, the University observes, that it is the vice of the whole Society, and the universal spirit of the Order, that all who are not entirely ignorant of their manner of conducting themselves know well how flexible they are, as occasions arise, and that they are not more steady than the times and the circumstances by which they are governed.

It was precisely at the time that the Jesuits boasted in their memorial to the King, of their usefulness in public instruction, and of the injury that would ensue from the loss of it, that they inculcated through their professor of moral theology, Hereau, the most abominable maxims, which he taught, viva voce, and which the students copied from his dictation. The University being informed of this, sent their rector with an assistant on two separate days, and seized the writings which were dictated by Hereau, and which were legally authenticated as such.

Among the abominations which they contained on the commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder," the University selected some which it formally denounced to the Parliament, on 5th March, 1644; the first was as follows: "If I am slandered by false accusations before a prince, a judge, or persons of character, and I am no otherwise able to prevent the loss of my good name, except by killing the accuser clandestinely and in private, I may lawfully do it; and the same rule holds, even though the crime with which I am charged be true, provided it were concealed in such a manner, as that he could not legally prove it." Hereau simply required one condition, which was, that the accuser should be first warned to cease, and then, if he would proceed, he might be killed, not openly, on account of the scandal, but secretly. He further declared it lawful for a man of honour to accept a challenge, for fear of passing for a coward: he expressed himself in an ambiguous manner, respecting the lives of kings, not permitting every one to kill him who has the lawful right to reign, and who abuses his authority to the injury of the people. The University, in explaining the poison which lies hid under the words printed in italics, by the aid of the regicide docrines taught by the Society, shews that Hereau exposes, at least virtually, the lives of sovereign

T 3

princes,

princes, to certain authorities, to whom he pretends that the public interests are confided; and that, according to what these Fathers have taught, in order to judge whether the authority of a ruler is legitimate, it is not less the proper duty of the Jesuits to advise upon that question, than it is that of physicians to take care in a time of pestilence that necessary remedies are provided.

This infamous casuist further taught the lawfulness of females procuring abortion; but a regard for decency renders it impossible to report what he has laid down on this head. *'

The author then details a variety of other particulars relative to the proceedings of the Society in the different parts of the world in which it had established itself, particularly in China, Malabar, Aleppo, Syria, and its other Asiatic settlements; whence it would appear that its doctrines and views have been uniformly inimical to all legitimate government, ecclesiastical as well as civil, and the preaching of its members subversive of every sentiment of rational piety and sound morality. He then proceeds to argue a point which we cannot but consider as far more difficult to establish, viz. that the Society has been an enemy to learning in general. On this head, more want of strength is betrayed than perhaps in any other part of the work; the arguments of the author being unsatisfactory and unsupported; and proving little more than that the Empress of Austria, having determined to get rid of the influence of the Jesuits over the University of Vienna, confided into other hands the administration of its revenues and the regulation of its public discipline. memorial to the Pope from Megazzi, Archbishop of Vienna, is also adduced as evidence that, owing to the paralyzing influence of the Jesuits, the whole system of public education in the University, together with literature in general, was falling to decay. Now, if we grant that this memorial was perfectly correct in all its statements, and that the Archbishop himself was an unprejudiced and disinterested witness, (concessions which others, perhaps, might be more loth to make,) still it by no means follows that, because the University was not at that time in a flourishing condition, therefore the Jesuits were altogether unfriendly to learning in general; or that, because some mismanagement, or some neglect, owing very possibly to temporary causes, had found its way into a school of learning over which they presided, therefore the views of the Society

A

See the documents printed by the University in 1644, under the title of Requêtes, Procès-verbaux, et Avertissemens faits par ordre de l'Université pour faire condamner une Doctrine pernicieuse enseignée au Collège de Clermont.

itself were fundamentally hostile to the diffusion of science and the cultivation of letters. A similar argument might with equal reason be urged against Protestantism, if it were shewn that the students in either of our Universities had made a less proficiency in learning than was expected, or the opinion of the Archbishop of Canterbury had been given that the persons in authority had misconducted the affairs of the colleges over which they presided.

Having taken this view of the general proceedings of the Society throughout the several quarters of the world, whereever its tenets have been promulgated, the author carries us back to the several particulars respecting the internal constitution of the Order. To the fundamental defects of the Institution itself, he very naturally imputes the growth of all that system of immorality and irreligion which his pages describe.

It is to the Institute of the Jesuits, in common with their religion, that the radical vice and corruption of the Society are to be referred: it will appear, on inspecting this Institute, that it is, in fact, opposed to all the rules of authority, and civilized life; that its tendency is to erect the Society into a monarchy, or rather an universal despotism; to concentrate every thing within itself; to overthrow every obstacle, and to become the sovereign and absolute arbiter of all the dignity and wealth of the Christian world; in fine, to produce the whole of those evils which the history of jesuitism records.

The Jesuits, from the first, aspired to universal empire. They saw, indeed, the difficulty of their enterprise, and were aware how many had failed in the attempt: they observed, that when any particular monarch had made the experiment, every other potentate was raised against him, and opposed his designs: they therefore contrived a more skilful method; which was, to leave the sovereigns masters of their dominions, so long as they could domineer over those sovereigns, and create their own Vice-Kings, Vice-Princes, Vice-Dukes, in short their ministers; and thus become, in effect, the sovereigns of the world, by securing to themselves, insensibly, a species of moral government which should not offend the eye, but produce the same result.

As they could not prevail over other monarchs by force, in opposing them by sea and land, like other adventurers, they availed themselves of religion, as the most effectual instrument for restraining the minds and inclinations of mankind, and of governing them by a power apparently divine; which they employed in directing the consciences of kings, with a view to their own ends and interests. In order to their success, however, it became necessary to proceed in the least alarming and most attractive way; especially to conceal the artifices of their Institute; to give it an adaptation to places and circumstances; to extend it to members of other orders, conditions, and even religions, to laymen as well

as ecclesiastics, to the married and single, to bishops, popes, em+ perors, and kings. It became essential that the constitution of the Society should be monarchical and despotic; and that the whole exercise of the authority, and the direction of the revenues, should be united in the hands of a single chief; that all the members should be blindly dependant, in every thing, upon his absolute will, for their destiny, for the disposal of their persons, their conduct, and their property; for their doctrine, and mode of thinking on all points, in order that all might be one in their Society, and that the spirit of the head might be universally that of every member of the body; that no authority, temporal or spiritual, neither councils, bishops, popes, nor kings, should effect any thing against the Society, and that it should be exempt from all their laws, and from all dependance upon them; that the Society should unite in itself the privileges and prerogatives of all other societies; and appropriate to itself such rights as should give it superiority over all other bodies; that it should be able to bind to itself all individuals, and all bodies, without ever being itself bound in respect of them; and that it should always sport with obligations and engagements, according to the interests of the Society, and as circumstances should require: that money being the sinew of government, it should amass in the hands of its director, such possessions and wealth as were necessary to its extensive views; for which purpose the Institute should offer all proper facilities: finally, that, in order to attract the world within its own sphere, and to arrive at general influence, it should, on the one hand, soothe the great and the luxurious, by palatable doctrines, by a convenient morality, and by principles friendly to the indulgence of every passion; while, on the other, it should render itself terrible to every opponent, and even formidable to all who should refuse to join it; formed as it was upon maxims which enabled it to silence or destroy its opponents, and caused even crowned heads to tremble...

It was, accordingly, upon the assemblage and union of such extraordinary principles, that the Institute was formed, as will hereafter be demonstrated; and it was in reference to such a junction, that the King of Portugal observed, in the Manifesto addressed to the Bishops of his Kingdom, in 1759, that "it was easy without any great wisdom or talent to foresee, and predict, that neither Christian nor civil society could subsist without a miracle, if the Jesuits were to continue."-Let us hear, also, what he adds, on the double design of the Jesuits, in the formation of a monarchy composed of the Nostri, or their own members, and their labours to render it universal by the ruin of all others, under the designation of Externi. "It cannot be" (says he) "but that the licentiousness introduced by the Jesuits, of which the three grand features are falsehood, murder, and perjury, should not give a new character to the morals of the Externi (as the Jesuits call those who are not of their order), as well as to the internal government of the Nostri, or their own body. In fact, since these Religious have introduced into Christian and civil society those

perverted

perverted dogmas, which render murder innocent, which sanctify falsehood, authorise perjury, deprive the laws of their power, destroy the submission of subjects, allow individuals the liberty of calumniating, killing, lying, and forswearing themselves, as their advantage may dictate; which remove the fear of divine and human laws, and permit a man to redress his own grievances, without applying to the magistrate; it is easy to see, without much penetration, that Christian and civil society could not subsist without a miracle. It was to be expected, that such pernicious maxims would most effectually dissolve the strongest bonds which could be formed, for preserving the commerce and union of mankind; that they would involve the world in continual opposition of sentiment and of interests, and excite perpetual and irreconcilable discord, instead of that harmony, without which human society must lose its consistency and security. On the other

hand, these Religious, in order to promote the union and solidity of the Nostri, or their own Society, establish a sovereign government, so despotic and absolute, that the Provincials themselves cannot retard the execution of the General's orders by delay, or any other means. These Provincials, far from being able to communicate to those who are dependant upon them, the laws which regulate their decisions, are compelled, on the contrary, to conceal them with care; all the subjects of the Provincials, from the novices to the professors of all the four vows, having no right to demand a sight of these Secret Laws, nor to require to be informed of the crimes for which they are punished, or even banished: they are not even allowed to make the slightest reflection on these mysterious laws; they can never, in any way, avoid obedience to the orders of their superiors, however mortifying or opposed to their own opinions, without either exposing themselves to the severest chastisements, or being dismissed without remedy. The result has been, that, while the Jesuits have been able to introduce discord and disorder into the ranks of their opponents, they have themselves been all subordination to superiors, and union among each other; being held together by the co-operation of all their members under one great head, for the support of whose authority they are mutually pledged; and proposing to themselves, as their principal end, the erection of their own Society, upon the ruin and destruction of every other."

The length of the above extract, which constitutes the greater portion of the twenty-fourth chapter, will oblige us to be more circumscribed in our notice of the succeeding sections. - In his developement of the internal frame of this singular establishment, the author lays some stress on that peculiar air of mystery which pervaded all the writings and regulations of the Order, and which appeared so essential to the advancement of their designs. Hence he infers that some purposes must have been entertained which rendered concealment necessary; yet what need could there be of secrecy, if the cause of the

Society