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A46857 The Jesuites intrigues with the private instructions of that society to their emissaries : the first, translated out of a book privately printed at Paris : the second, lately found in manuscript in a Jesuites closet, after his death : both sent with a letter from a gentleman at Paris to his friend in London. Gentleman at Paris.; Compton, Henry, 1632-1713. 1669 (1669) Wing J717; ESTC R18023 39,159 78

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so they set themselves against that worthy Person Charles Boromeo Archbishop of Milan when as Legate à Latere he would have visited their Society amongst the other Regulars But alas what is all this They break even the holy Canons by trading expresly against their injunctions in Pearls Rubies and Diamonds which are brought them from the Indies And it is generally believed that the greatest part of the Jewels which come from the Indies and are sold at Venice pass through their hands Neither is this a bare rumour spread abroad by their enemies for I have it from those very men whom they imploy as Brokers to put them off I could produce other Stories that should make it as clear how ill they serve the Pope and how dishonestly but because I can say nothing in it without mentioning a Prince who would not very well relish my discourse I will be silent For I desire to serve all the World and offend no man not so much as the Iesuites which otherwise I honour and against whom I do not in the least pretend to write an invective only a little to abate their pride and if possible make them behave themselves with more moderation than hitherto they have done For who is there almost that has not reason to complain of the Iesuites And yet just as it falls out many times with men in desperate diseases whilst they make lamentable complaints to heaven such as startle every body that hear them though each patient very well knows what kind of a Disease he is visited with yet not one in a thousand can tell from what inward cause it proceeds so notwithstanding all the World cries out upon the Iesuites some for being oppressed by them others for not being so honestly dealt with as was to be expected from men of their Robe yet the inconvenience continues few perceiving what is the original of this Mischief However if one would but look a little into the business it would appear plainly that the immoderate and boundless passion of making themselves Great provokes them to neglect the satisfaction of Princes and to deceive them to oppress the poor embezel Widows Estates ruin great Families raise suspicions and promote enmities betwixt Christian Princes to introduce themselves into their Affairs But would it not be a strange irregularity in nature if one of the meanest parts of the body which was made only as a servant to the more noble should take to itself the best blood and the greatest share of the vital spirits Could one after such a disorder expect less than a dissolution of the whole The abuse in Church and State is no less when we see the Iesuites Order which is come in one of the last and erected for the Conversion of Infidels and drawing sinners to repentance assume to itself the Concerns of Prince and Prelate drawing out the best and very life itself of their Affairs for their own use Which most assuredly cannot be done without both a publick and private disturbance by keeping under those subjects who most deserve advancement and raising none but the unworthy with thousands of other Divels such monstrous proceedings must call up I could easily bring many reasons here from experience besides those I have given to prove of what a vast extent the ambition of the Iesuites is and that there is no measure in their desires of growing Great But because I hate to be tedious I will only lay before you the project of Father Parsons upon England as he himself has set it down in his Book called The Reformation of England Where after he has fallen upon Cardinal Pole a man of singular piety and worth and has observed certain faults and defects in the Council of Trent he concludes at last that supposing England should fall back to the Church of Rome he would put it into the Condition of the Primitive Church For this purpose all the Ecclesiastical Revenues must be brought into one common Stock the care and dispensation of which he would have committed to seven discreet persons taken out of the Iesuites Society to distribute as they should think fit Moreover he would have all other Orders forbid coming into this Kingdom under severe penalties only such as they shall permit which according to his judgment must be none but the begging Orders But as it is the usual fate of self-love to blind those it has mastered and be they never so wise make them guilty of the greatest follies I do not much wonder at what this Father adds England says he being once brought back to the Truth the Pope must not for at least five years after think of making any profit out of the Church-Revenues but remit the whole entirely to the seven who shall dispose of them as they think best for the Churches advantage In good earnest a man must be very dull that should not perceive their whole design to be to amuse or rather cheat the Pope by such a proposal hoping at the five years end to find out some other trick which seldom fails them to keep it five years longer and so by degrees shut His Holiness quite out Does not this demonstrate their greedy ambition to an undeniable degree Can any man after this doubt of their aspiring thoughts of a Monarchy Do not the arts they use put it past dispute And do they not at the same time make it manifest that so they have their Ends they are indifferent as to the rest whether advantaged or ruined by it In the time of Gregory the Thirteenth they made it their request to be invested with all the Churches of Rome no doubt that they might found their Empire in the Capital City of the World But that which was deny'd them for Rome was upon their importunity granted them for England where they made him confer the Dignity of Arch-Priest upon a Iesuite in Vow who instead of protecting the Ecclesiasticks plays the Divel against all Priests that have no dependance upon the Iesuites so far as to hinder their communication one with another though but to discourse which has made them almost desperate Therefore it is no marvel if at present most of all the Priests in England are Iesuites in Vow since besides the reasons I have already given they admit none into the Colledges but such as pass their word to take the habit of the Society So that if England should slide back again there is no question of it but that it would give beginning to an established Monarchy of the Iesuites because the Bishopricks Dignities and generally all the other Benefices and Church-revenues would be bestowed upon Iesuites No wonder then if after this we hear of so few Converts especially in that Nation we last spoke of For first the old Stock of Priests which formerly made a great harvest that the Iesuites falsly attributed to themselves is near worn out And these Youths are more zealous in promotihg their own Interest than in saving of
diverse flowers so the Iesuites by strength of Reason compose their own Interest out of the faithful Intelligence they have of the Concerns of all Princes and of all Occurrences of State by which they do not only refresh that inward thirst of becoming Great but make likewise a mighty advantage in understanding their own emolument in prosecution of which they beat down all before them to accomplish their ends But what is most remarkable when as we have said before they are got into the hearts of Princes they are used to play them off by assuring them what excellent expedients they have for putting such a plot in practice and to bring about such a design But scarcely will they have begun in their assistance according to engagement but that upon consideration of some inconvenience this addition of Greatness to a Prince whom they have hitherto fed with fair hopes may bring to them they create a thousand delaies like Advocates in a Process at Law and then upon a sudden by some excellent sleight of contrivance turn all into confusion and so break the neck of that Plot themselves had laid He that will but reflect upon the League of France which being carryed on and concluded by them was likewise detected when they saw the King was like to get the better and upon England which they so often promised to the Spaniards will need no other proof to make out the truth of what I have said May we not then very justly draw this conclusion from the whole That the Iesuites having no real or sincere kindness for any nor will oblige the World beyond their own Interest neither Prince nor Prelate can make use of them without injury to themselves For at the same instant they pretend a like respect to all becoming Monsieurs with the French Dons with the Spaniard and so with all other Countreys as occasion serves and hopes of advantage They are very indifferent who it is they do harm or good to And no doubt it is that excessive Self-Interest and the little regard they have to any mans Concern else which makes few enterprises succeed in which they have a hand However I must allow that they have an incomparable art in concealing this indifference some of them still pretending a great zeal for the Crown of France others for that of Spain others for the Emperour and for all the rest of the Princes from whom they expect any favour But if it so fall out that some one of these Princes takes a Iesuite into his Cabinet-Counsels this fellow shall no sooner know any thing but that he will advise the Father General of it who presently sends back his result upon it in order to which he proceeds without consideration either of his Princes Will or Service And though these I have already declared are very great inconveniences I will shew you yet greater The first is That the Iesuites being fully informed of the several Interests and Counsels of Princes they amongst them that feign themselves to be of the French Faction propound to the King or his chief Ministers certain considerations of State which may be of some weight such as have been sent from Rome in their politick Letters Those which flatter the Court of Spain or any other Government where they have access make other propositions in these places quite contrary to the former or at least such as may keep Christian Princes at a distance to be in perpetual jealousies one of another which disturbs the common Peace more than can be imagined and brings a misfortune upon all Christendom For such a defiance hinders all possibility of joyning against the Common Enemy and indeed makes all Treaties of Peace between Princes signifie very little The second inconvenience is That by these subtle practices they have so opened the eyes of all people that no body minds any thing else but the Politicks So as nothing is done now a dayes that is not first weighed in this balance nor any business that is not directed by this Iesuitical Compass But all this would be nothing to what mischief would ensue if they of the Reformed Churches should take up this example and abuse their Interest with Princes after this manner For then in stead of Lutherans with whom some accommodation may it is hoped be found out one day we should have spring up a politick brood of irreconcilable Antichrists And to make it appear that I have said nothing but the truth when I have charged the Iesuites with such abominable Artifices and Collusions above all when they are upon insinuating themselves into the favour of Princes I must not forget what was done amongst them some years since upon the Concern of Great Britain One of their Fathers an Assistant of that Kingdom called Father Parsons having writ a Book against the Right of the King of Scots to the Crown of England Father Criton with others of the same Order defended the Kings Cause in a Book Intuled The Discourse of the King of Scots against the Opinion of Father Parsons or to that purpose And though you may suspect by this that they are divided among themselves yet I do assure you they do understand one another perfectly well For this Game was played by the directions of their General to the end that if the Scotch were disappointed of the Succession then should be shewed to whoever came in Father Parsons his Book or if otherwise Scotland should carry it then they should ingratiate themselves by presenting Criton's Work And so whatever came uppermost they were provided with that should make their Society acceptable By which you may judge how true it is that I told you Princes are the main object of all the Iesuites Designs and Actions and therefore reason good they should esteem their Order a Great Monarchy Nay is not this an undeniable argument of my assertion the small care they take to please any Prince when their Interest comes in competition We have have many experimental Examples that convince it beyond dispute if it were worth the trouble to set them down I will only give you one which shall be as good as a thousand Every one knows that there is none in the World that the Iesuites are in so high a nature obliged to and to whom they owe more fidelity than the Pope not only for the particular Vow of Obedience they make to his Person but for many other reasons besides And yet for all this Pius Quintus of blessed memory having a mind that these Fathers should officiate in the Chore and do all things after the manner of other Regulars they would never obey him but pretended still some great prejudice it would bring upon them Only there were some amongst them that submitted to His Holiness and did as they were commanded But how did the rest serve them Were they not by way of reproach called Aviatins or Starters aside And was ever any of them afterwards preferred in the least Just