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A36130 A discovery of the Society in relation to their politicks written originally by a well-wisher to the Jesuits. Well-wisher to the Jesuits. 1658 (1658) Wing D1659; ESTC R5361 16,095 29

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an Alembick a man may extract such an ointment as shall have the Vertue to heal a mortall wound and as from several blossomes Bees draw that which afterwords becomes honey so these Jesuits from the infallible account which they have of all Princes affaires and of all the emergencies of every State do by the power of their discourse extract from them what makes for their own advantage which is in some measure a remedy for their insatiable avarice and ambition And they are excellent Masters in a certain Art unknown to others whereby they effect their designes equally from other mens either good or ill but more often from their misfortunes then happinesse Nor is it unusuall with them to ensnare the unwary Prince into whose secrets they have dived proposing to him that they have in their hands the onely excellent means to make him master of his desires But when by these pretences they have made their advantages of him if it do but come into their imagination that the spreading greatnesse of that Prince may one day prove prejudiciall to them they do as Lawyers in their causes prolong the successe of the businesse what lyes in their power till at last with strange juggling and an imperceptible kind of Legerdemaine they utterly ruine those designes to which they had given birth The Ligue of France treated and concluded by them they not long after basely renounc'd all medling with when they saw things prosper on the Kings side and England so often promised by them to the Spanyards yet in such manner performed so confirms the present discourse that there needs no further proof Tenthly from what hath been already alledged it necessarily follows that the Jesuits have no sincere affection towards any Prince whatsoever either temporall or spirituall but onely comply with them so farre as stands with their own convenience and advantage Nay it may be yet further inferr'd that no Prince much lesse any Prelates of an inferiour degree can make any effectuall use of them because they seem at the same time to be equally affected to all complying with the French as if they were French with the Spanyards as if they were Spanyards and so with all others as the occasion requires from all which the onely rule of their Chymistry is to exact their own profit and accommodation They never regard the prejudice of one more then another and thence it comes that those enterprises wherein they have intermedled have seldome succeeded well because they are no further embarqu'd therein then their own interest advises them And as to this particular the artifices they use are notorious some of them pretending great inclinations for the prosperity of France others of Spain others of the Empire and others of some other Princes of whom they desire to be favoured And if any of these Princes be desirous to make use of some Jesuit whom he imagines to be very much his Friend he immediately acquaints the F. Generall by Letter with the businesse which he hath to treat and expects his Answer together with order what he shall do and suitably to the commands he receives he proceeds in his affair Never regarding whether that Order of the Generall be conformable to the intention of the Prince who hath entrusted him with the management of that businesse But so the Society be served and comply'd with he matters not what disservice it may be to the Prince To this may be added that the Jesuits understanding the severall interests of all Princes and being acquainted with all things daily treated in secret Councels those who pretend an inclination for France propound to the King and his principall Ministers certain Memorialls of State and important considerations sent to them from their politick Fathers at Rome On the other side those who pretend to hold with the Crown of Spain do just the same with them and so with the rest From which carriage of theirs ariseth this mischief that it causes such distrusts in the hearts of Christian Princes that they cannot credit one the other which is a great hindrance to the publick peace and the universall wellfare of Christendome Besides this diffidence of theirs is that which makes it so difficult a thing to conclude a league against the common enemy and the precious enjoyments of peace to be of so little value among Princes Furthermore with these circumventing devices though they have so opened the eyes of the world and so sharpened mens wits in matter of State that they are notorious to all yet even at this very day to the great prejudice of the Church they are wholly taken up with matters of policy and ballance all their actions according to their worldly and selfish concernments But that these Jesuiticall Mysteries and Stratagems may be made yet more manifest I cannot here conceale the means whereby they inveigle Princes to their party There are some years now past since one of these Fathers called Father Parsons the Assistant of England wrote a book against the succession of the King of Scotland to the crown of England And another Father of the same Society called Crittonius with some others in a Book which they wrote defended the Title of the King of Scotland opposing the opinion of Father Parsons and pretending to be at difference among themselves But the truth was that all was cunningly contriv'd and carryed on by the command of their Father Generall onely out of this design that whosoever should succeed in the Kingdome of England they might have an excellent argument to work in him a great good opinion of their Society and so as much as may be make their advantages of him What more pertinent example can we desire to shew that Princes and their interests are the objects of all Jesuiticall actions and determinations and consequently to make good their own assertion That their Society is a grand Monarchy Again that this truth may also be made manifest That the Jesuits regard not whether they please or displease any Prince when their own commedity lyes at the stake though the experience of infinite things past make it as clear as the Sun yet the particular instance I shall now adde wil make it somewhat the more conspicuous There is not any person in the world whom they are more bound to serve or indeed for whom they themselves pretend greater submission then the Bishop of Rome were it not for other particular reasons but out of a consideration only of the solemn vow they make to obey him Yet when Pius Quintus would have brought in something of reformation amongst these Fathers by reducing them to a performance of their duty in the Quire they submissively refused to obey him as conceiving it a notorious prejudice to their Society to be reduced to any thing suitable to the practise of other Monkes And for those few among them that conscientiously did comply with the Popes pleasure they were ever afterwards called by way of derision Quintini and made
so contemptible that never any of them could be admitted to the least preferment among them After the same manner did they oppose glorious S Charles Archbishop of Millaine when in the quality of Legate à latere to his Holinesse he endeavoured to reduce them to Religious discipline But to what end do I mention these when they think it a scorn to submit to the sacred Canons themselves but contrary to the provisions made therein make merchandise of Jewels Rubies and Diamends which they trade to the Indies for Nor is that opinion altogether groundlesse that the greatest part of the precious stones sold in Venice belong to the Jesuits since the report took its first rise from their own Agents and Brokers whom they employ'd in the sale of them But that they are no faithfull Servants to the Bishop of Rome what ever they pretend I need onely the acknowledgement of those Fathers who for no mean default were called by processe to Rome I neither can nor would if I could name them nor am I much inclin'd to wade any farther into this businesse partly to avoid the bringing of any Prince upon the stage that might take offence at my discourse it being my desire to please all and not to disoblige any and partly that it might not be said I were guilty of an humour to inveigh against the Jesuits my purpose only having been to give a short and plain account of their courses and customes For as it many times happens that we see a person afflicted with some grievous infirmity betraying the extremity of his sufferings by such lamentations and cryes as reach heaven it self and it is apparent to every one that the man suffers no small torment yet there is not any able to discern the originall cause of his indisposition So the world is full of complaints against the Jesuits some for being persecuted by them others for being treacherously served by them yet the mischief still remains among us Nor is the cause thereof easily discovered though it is conceived it does not proceed from any thing so much as from that prodigious and indeterminate desire which they have still to encrease their power This is the apple of their eye which if it be but ever so little touched they make no difficulty to disgust any man whatsoever to circumvent and over-reach Princes to oppresse the poor to force Widdows out of their estates to ruine whole Nations nay many times by their interloping into affairs of publick concernment to raise jealousies and dissatisfactions among Christian Magistrates Now as there would happen a great inconvenience if that part which according to the designe of Nature was last formed as an instrument to serve the rest that for their precedency are the more noble and should attract unto it self all the purest blood and vitall spirits for it were the way to bring the whole to destruction So is it no lesse inconvenient that the Jesuits an Institution lately graffed into the body of the Church to be instrumentall as they then selves pretend in the conversion of Hereticks and the reduction of Sinners into the ways of Repentance should grasp into their power and presume upon the management of all the most weighty and important affaires of Prelates and Princes drawing from them the very life and spirits of their interests to make their own advantages thereof From this source springs all publick and private disturbances many are depressed who were their worth consider'd should be exalted many advanc'd who were more deservedly trod under foot with thousands of other inconveniences consequent thereto Many reasons might be produc'd drawn from experience it self to make it apparent what an insatiable ambition the Jesuits have to encrease still more and more in greatnesse It shall therefore suffice to make it appeare out of the words of Father Parsons one of the Society as they may be found in a book of his which he writ in English entituled The Reformation of England Having in the first place blamed Cardinall Pool and then taken notice of many defects and imperfections in the Councell of Trent he concludes That when England should returne to the Roman Catholick faith He would reduce it to the forme and state of the Primitive Church making common all Ecclesiasticall Goods and assigning the oversight thereof unto seven Savii or wise men who should be Jesuits and were to make distribution of the same as they should think convenient He further thinks it fit under a grievous penalty to forbid all Religious persons of what Order soever to return into England without their Licence resolving that none should be entertained there but those that were to be maintained by Alms. But as it oft falls out that Self-love so blinds the wifest man that he betrayes his imprudence to all the world so is that a most ridiculous passage which the same Father adds in the place before cited When England saith he shall once be reduced to the true Faith it will not be convenient that the Popes at least for five years space should expect any advantage from the Ecclesiasticall Benefices of this Kingdome but remit all into the hands of those seven Savii who should dispose of them as they conceived best for the good of the Church This being his design that the first five years being past by some other invention whereof they are very full they would get the same priviledge confirmed to them for five more and so onward till they had utterly excluded his Holinesse from having any thing to do in England Now what more lively representation can there be made of the avarice and ambition of the Jesuits together with the desire they have to erect an absolute Monarchy Who sees not with what slights they endeavour to promote their own Interest not caring who are made happy who unhappy so their concernments be secured What should I say more of them Did they not in the time of Gregory the thirteenth make it there request that they might be invested of all the Parish-Churches in Rome that they might there lay the foundations of their Monarchy and what they could not get in Rome have they not at length obtained in England where not long since they have chosen an Arch-Priest one of the Jesuits in Voto who instead of protecting the Clergy like a ravenous wolf persecutes all such Priests as have no dependance on the Jesuits worrying them even to exasperation and despair and depriving them under a great penalty of mutuall communication To which may be added their forcing the English Clergy to become Jesuits in Voto not admitting any one into their Colledges who hath not made some engagement to be a Jesuit So that when that Kingdome shall returne to the ancient Faith it will give a fair beginning to an absolute Jesuiticall Monerchy when all the Ecclesiasticall Revenues all the Abbeyes Benefices Bishopticks Arch-Priestships and other dignities shall be altogether at the disposall of the Jesuits There are many