that we may be thought poor we must search and scrape up all that can be spared in Town or the Villages adjacent Our Preaching must be directed by the humour of the people we live amongst and it must be insinuated that we are come to catechise and teach their Children And this we must do gratis without regard had to any quality and yet so as in order to serve our selves by not seeming burdensome to the people as all other Begging Orders are We must profess to be of the number of the other Begging Orders till our House has got a sufficient Income to which we must have a particular aim CHAP. II. What must be done to get the ear and intimacy of Princes and Great men THere is great care to be taken in this business To bring over any Prince to Us we must be sure to take off that prejudice of believing They have no need of Us and perswade Them what interest We have That no man dares lift up his hand against Us. Princes have always desired a Jesuite Confessour when They have been engaged in hateful practices that They might not hear of reproof but still have some favourable interpretation put upon Them This often falls out upon Matches contracted with near Relations which are very troublesome by reason of the common opinion That such Marriages never thrive And therefore when Princes are set upon such things We must encourage Them and espouse Their Concerns putting Them in hopes that We can have what we will of the Pope and alledge some reasons opinions or examples which may feed the humour by shewing how Matches of higher consequence have been approved of for a publick good and have many times been indulged to Princes for the greater glory of God Thus when a Prince attempts any thing as for example He has a mind to make War We must go along with Him fix His mind and resolution upon it without enquiring into particulars for fear if things should happen otherwise than well the fault should be laid at our door And this We may do by pretending Our Rule which forbids Us to take knowledge of affairs of that nature To confirm the good will of Princes it is good to undertake some little Embassy always provided it bring us in some advantage by which We may render Our selves as necessary as welcome and let Them see how great Our power and credit is as well with the Pope as all other Princes There is no better way in the world to win Princes and Great Men at Court than by Presents which though never so mean are better than none at all And to give Them a full testimony of Our affections manners and inclinations We must than which nothing is more acceptable to Princes discover to Them the deportment and manners of those They have an aversion to By this means we shall creep into the hearts of Princes and Grandees Now if They be not married when we receive Their Confession We must propose to Them the Matching into some noble Alliance to some beautiful Lady and a great Fortune and such as if they are not related at least are very intimate with some of Ours set out such Virgins with Commendations suitable to our End to please These Great Ones Thus We may by preferring a Wife make new friendships as we find by experience in the House of Austrich with the Kindomes of Poland and France and the Dutchies When Women of condition come over to Us We must possess Them with as great a love to Our Society as is possible and that as well by those that are Our Friends of their Relation as by Our selves to the end they may become the more liberal towards Us. Now the way to gain their affections is by little Services and trifling Presents which will make them lay open their hearts to Us. To conduct the Consciences of Noble Persons We must follow the opinions of those Authors that write in a more gentle stile against the rigorous Morals of the Monks Which will make Princes reject the latter to embrace Our advice and counsel And thus They shall wholly depend upon Us. Therefore to have the good Will of Princes Prelates and other Great Personages it is requisite that They be acquainted with Our great Deserts and that We shew Them how considerable We are in all parts of the World and that We are able in a high measure to dispense with reserved cases which other Monks cannot do as to absolve from Fasting or Paying any just Debt Untie the impediments of Marriage and a thousand other Obligations and Vows We must endevour to breed dissention among Great Men and raise seditions or any thing a Prince would have Us to do to please Him If a chief Minister of State to any Monarch that is Our Friend oppose Us and that Prince cast His whole favour upon Him so as to add Titles to His Honour We must present Our selves before Him and court Him in the highest degree as well by Visits as all humble respect CHAP. III. How we are to deal with persons of Great rank that are not rich but have great power in the Common-wealth that we may make Our advantages by Their Credit IF They be Secular Lords We must under the protection of Their assistance and kindness carry any process against Our enemies and make use of Their partiality to hook in Houses Villages Gardens Quarries of Stone for Building especially in the Towns where we have Colledges always purchasing under a strange name of some Confident of Ours We must be very careful to uphold the Bishops and Parishioners revenues for Us lest They should hinder the exercise of Our Function where They have to do For In Germany Poland and France the Bishops have great power and can with a great deal of ease obtain from their Prince any Convenience for Us as Monasteries new erected Parishes the priviledges of Serving at certain Altars places devoted to holy uses and other things which must be facilitated by stopping the Seculars mouths with some small consideration Besides We may transfer to Our own use what foundations We please where Catholicks and Hereticks inhabit together These Bishops should be made 〈◊〉 â—â—derstand that besides the meritoriousness of the act in such a case they will reap a great benefit Whereas the Secular Priests and the Monks would pay them with nothing but a Song They ought to have immortal praise for their zeal in so good a deed that are the Cause of Our getting into the foundations of some Seculars and Canons which may be effected with ease by the assistance of These Bishops We must see that when the Bishops and Princes are founding any Colledges we have a perpetual Licence conferred upon Us to assist the Vicar of the parish-Parish-Churches in the Cure of Souls and that for some time the Superiour be a parishioner himself so to have the Church wholly at Our dispose The Bishops must be perswaded to build us Colledges in
act of resignation have obtained the kingdome of heaven and that they may one day be canonized if they will be diligent to prosecute so glorious a design promising them moreover under the Seal of Confession that they shall be sure of our interest with the Pope for the effecting of it When therefore the Widows are ready to put their Estates into our hands and to give themselves up to the directions of their ghostly Father to avoid clamour and opposition they must immediately confirm this Conveyance if they be willing and that they are fully perswaded that such counsel comes from God the Protectour of Widows who has greater care of their souls than bodies They must be likewise possessed that God takes great pleasure in good works and alms bestowed upon religious Orders and such poor people as give themselves up to devotion And this advice their Confessour must give them letting them understand that a cheerful giver is a delight to God when he acts within the bounds of obedience which is the sister of humility But they must be sure when they determine any charity to give an account to their Confessour that he may add retrench or alter as he shall think fit Above all they must be forbid the visiting of other Orders lest they intice them away from us For generally this Sex is unconstant They must therefore be made see that our Order is superiour to all the rest more necessary to the Church of greater reputation in the Cities and has greater interest with Princes So that it will be impossible for them to make a better choice For the other Monks have none of these advantages nor ever look after the salvation of their Neighbours being generally ignorant dull heavy sottish fellows that mind nothing but their bellies and voluptuous living When we have got good store of money and other things out of our Widows for fear they should take a freak to marry again we must put discreet Confessours to them who will take care that they assign us pensions and certain tributes or alms to help pay the yearly debts contracted by our Colleges and professed Houses particularly for those at Rome and such Colleges where the poorer sort of our Order study as also for the re-establishing of Novitiates who have long since been dispersed Dispose them to lay out a good sum yearly for the buying of Chasubles Chalices and other accommodations for Altars Before a Widow comes to die if she has not left us to be Executors for fear of displeasing her friends want of affection or any other cause let her be acquainted with our poverty the number of our new Colleges not as yet endowed the zeal and numerousness of our Order the great want our Churches are in and advise her to finish those buildings of our Colleges which are left imperfect and to be at the charge her self for the greater glory of God of erecting Temples Refectories and other foundations of which we poor servants of the Society of Jesus Christ stand in need And let all this be done warily and with dispatch After the same method must we treat Princes and other Benefactours that have raised us any great structures or founded any Place First letting them understand that their good works are consecrated to eternity that they are the true model of piety that they are those we make a particular remembrance of and that they shall have their reward in the next world But if they object to us that Jesus Christ was laid in a manger at his Birth and that he had not where to lay his Head and therefore that we who are in a more particular manner his Companions ought not to enjoy the perishable vanities of this world then must it be pressed home to them that indeed at the beginning the Church was in that condition but that now by divine providence she is become a Monarch she was then but a broken rejected stone but is now grown into a high rock CHAP. VIII How to draw into our Society the Sons and Daughters of our Devotes THat the Mothers may the more willingly consent to this enterprise we must perswade them gently that they must be a little harsh with Daughters that are stubborn whipping them with rods if young with mortification and threats of worse usage if more gone in years They must be chastised and denied what were otherwise befitting their quality But if they will comply with our Rules they must be cherished with all tenderness and promised a greater portion than if they should marry The Mother must lay before them the austerity of a Husband and the chargeableness of that condition represent to them the hardships and vexations of Marriage the torments and anguishes they are to endure and that nothing but sorrow is to be got by it whereas the entring into some religious Vow brings along with it all content The same doctrine must be applyed to Sons that are inclinable to marry We must get familiar with their Sons and invite them to those Colleges we think fittest to place them in carrying them into our Gardens to walk and to our Countrey-houses where we go for diversion Shew them the great content those retreats afford and how great respect all Princes pay us In short we must make it our business to draw in the youth by carrying them to our Refectories and Chambers letting them see the agreeableness of our conversation and how easy our Rule is which has the promise of the glory of the blessed Our sharpness in disputations of Things appertaining to this world or that to come the eloquent discourses that are made amongst us from delightful entertainments so heavenly pleasant which seem to be bestowed upon us in the name of the holy Virgin by way of revelation must not be omitted as so many inducements to bring them to our Order convincing them how great a sin it is to resist a call from heaven Let them likewise be present at our Exercises to see what that will do The Preceptors that teach Widows Sons in the house must be of our preferring who must be perpetually inviting them over to us and promise them rather than fail that if they will enter into our Society they shall be received gratis We must order it so that their Mothers disappoint them of their necessaries from time to time to make them consider into what troubles and difficulties their affairs are fallen CHAP. IX How to encrease the Revenues of our Colleges NOne of our Order shall be admitted to the last profession so long as they are in expectation of any inheritance to befall them unless he has a Brother amongst us younger and more likely to live than himself or for some other beneficial reason In the first place above all things we must endeavour the aggrandizing of our Order according to the will of our Superiours who alone must be acquainted with these things and must do their utmost to advance the Church of God
to beleeve our poverty our Superiour must borrow of the moneyed men giving Bond before a Scrivener Perchance when they lie a dying they will send to the Scrivener for the good of their souls to deliver us up the Bonds And a piece of paper is easier given up than the counting over a heap of money For the same reason we should take up all the money we could of our Friends though we put it out again that so being sensible of our great indigency this may be a more ready way to provoke them in compassion at the hour of death to leave us the whole or a good share for the erecting some new College We must not fail to be in Fee with the Physicians that they may recommend us to their Patients upon all occasions Our Confessours must be sure not to neglect visiting the sick especially those that are in despair laying before them the pains of Purgatory and Hell which are no ways to be avoided without Charity They which have been formerly covetous are used for the most part to be very liberal to our Society and it may be put all their Estates presently into our hands which our people must press as much as they can for fear the opportunity should slip by If a Woman in Confession blames the vitious and harsh humour of her Husband that hinders her from observing our Discipline and that she be rich and well inclined towards us She must be convinced that she can do nothing more pleasing to God than to lay out a good Sum of Money unknown to her Husband or else spare it out of her own allowance as being the only means to procure her quiet for the future and remission both of her owns sins and her Husbands And we find many times by experience that this course has abated much of the Husband's rigour CHAP. X. Of the Rigour and Discipline within Our Society THe Superiours shall declare the rigour of this Discipline to be such that excepting some reserved Cases whosoever among us of what age or condition soever shall have taken off any of ours or our Friends from doing us good or put them upon entring into any other Order but Ours or upon bestowing their Patrimony on Us shall shew a coolness and backwardness and rather perswade them to give it to some other Order or if any that receive Confessions shall perswade their Penitents to bestow their Charity upon their poor Kindred such ought to be esteemed mortal Enemies to the Society And though they must not be dismissed immediately yet let them be forbid hearing any Confessions and mortified by undergoing the most vile and abject Offices be put to teach the lower Forms in the School hindred from taking any Degree and as well in private as at Meals let them be perpetually jobed grumbled at debarred of all recreations and solemn Meetings whatever they value most in their Chambers let it be taken away that being thus hard put to it they may first complain themselves Which is the best way to get rid of such incorrigible Fellows They which scruple the procuring any manner of advantage for the Society shall be turned out without any more to do In short the Superiour must never stick at dismissing any that continue not in perfect obedience and submission CHAP. XI How to order a Dismission TO the end that they we turn out become not irreconcileable to us we must handle them after this manner Before they are dismissed they shall give it under their hands and confirm it over the Sacrament that they will never speak nor act any thing against our Society Hinder their access to Great Men whether of the Spiritualty or Tempralty for fear they should curry favour with them to our prejudice Lay open their Vices and Miscarriages and ill Conditions with a testimony of our great resentment that they should so far forfeit themselves with us past hopes of reconciliation Write word to all our Colleges of their names and sirnames we have dismissed with a large account of their Mis-demeanours In whatever power or credit he may be that is turned out we must still be before-hand with him in our address to the sober and powerful Men letting them understand what hainous Offences he has committed that were the cause of his Disgrace Then lay before them the love power reputation and advantage our Society has brought to the Church of God by the approbation of all men the great esteem is had of our Learning for which Kings and other Great Princes take us for their Confessours and Chaplains and admit us into their most secret Counsels And besides if we acknowledge our selves obliged in Christian zeal to have a particular love for our Neighbour how can it be imagined that we should do the least wrong to any we have admitted Companions under the same Rule with us We must have a great care how we let any of those we have dismissed into a Benefice before having first cried Peccavi given us a good sum of Money and assigned all they have over to our Society or at least given some particular and sufficient testimony that they are ours body and soul. CHAP. XII What choice ought to be made of those Novices we take in amongst us and how to keep them VVE must be very careful in choosing Youths well-disposed of good parts and comely persons well born and rich To intice them they must be carryed into our Gardens or into our best appartments by the Prefect of the Classes who shall satisfie them how acceptable an undertaking it is to God their coming into our Society The Governours of our Colleges must be very gentle with them to let them see what an affection we have for them which to manifest the more when any others chance to be in the same fault with them we will pardon them meerly for their sakes and then let them privately understand as much We must tell them with some seeming kind of passion that Youth is always ill-disposed and if they render not up themselves upon such warning they must be threatened with eternal Damnation For the more easie winning upon them we must present them with some small trifles little Images Books or the like walk with them in the Gardens and there give them some of the best Fruit sweeten them up with good words place them in the best seats upon any publick Solemnity and sometimes entertain them in our Refectories giving them a tast of our best and choicest Wines We must perswade them that God has designed them for us and that we are most assured of it by the revelation of our Holy Fathers But they must have a care not to speak of it again to any body Then must we threaten them that they are eternally Damned if they despise the Call of the Holy Ghost who has inspired them to enter into our Order When they come to desire to be admitted it must not be granted them presently but put off