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A41988
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An account of the Jesuites life and doctrine by M.G.
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M. G. (Martin Grene), 1616-1667.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing G1825; ESTC R12657
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58,242
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215
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AN ACCOUNT Of the JESUITES LIFE AND DOCTRINE By M. G. Printed in the Year 1661. THE PREFACE to the Reader THough the Progress of affairs in our late revolutions might have made every one plainly perceive whence the distempers of our times proceeded yet many will needs conceive or pretend they conceive that the Papists were occasion of all our disorders and the Jesuits the Boutefeu's in the ruine of both King and Country What misery the misinterpreting the Bible hath brought upon our Nation by a swarme of Sects that Libels lay to Catholicks the only Religion that constantly none excepted followed the Royall party Priests and Jesuits are said to be the cause of all those mischiefs of which the whole World know's Sectaries were the true Source their restless Spirits never being content till having pryed on both Crown and Mitre at length they worried one another Yet 't is the stile of our times to lay all to the Papists and no Man concludes with applause but he that Perorat's against the Jesuits Pamphlets are the Vulgar Oracles and Libels the guide of those that pretended to believe nothing but Bible It is a strange thing to see what Character is commonly given the Jesuits Every Jesuit say our Pamphlets and Pulpits too hath a Pope in his belly a Macchiavel in his head Mercuries wings on his feet and the Mysterious feather of Lucian's cocks tail in his hand The Pope in his belly makes him still big with malice still giving birth to some new mischief Macchiavel in his head Orders all so dexterously as to make him out reach all the World Mercurie's wings on his feet carry him from place to place from Country to Country and make him every where in a trice The Cocks feather in his hand opens all closets and Cofers and Secrets and discovers to the Jesuit the Want and Wealth of every one that he may know where to place his labours with thrift And if you ask why the Jesuits are never discovered in these pranks the Libels tell you it is because the Jesuits have Proteus's bodies and transforme themselves into all shapes Now a Cobler now a Preacher now a Tinker now a Courtier now a Peasan now a States-man and what not And this still with Gyges's ring on their finger that they may never be seen but when they list By this means it comes to pass that the Jesuits can seldom or never be charged in particular with any misdemeanour yet it is certain credite posteri that they are the only contrivers of all the mischiefs in the World If the Covenant be in vogue none but Jesuits and Jesuited Papists resist it If the same covenant be condemned to deserved flames 't was the Jesuits made it no body else could have dreamt of so much malice If the King be cryed down in Pulpits and Tubs for leavying an unnatural war against his dutifull Subjects as our late Soveraign of glorious memory was 't was the Papists did all and the Jesuits were the Incendiaries If three Kingdomes groan under the Tyranny of Cromwel there were 500 Jesuits in his Army What more Every crime is theirs The Jesuits are to our Fabulous heads what the Evil Genius's or Pestiferous Gods were to old time when fictions made Deities They are Presbyterians and Episcopal Protestants and Levellers and Quakers and what you will provided it be for that time a name of disgrace They have overthrown learning destroyed Philosophy poysoned States corrupted manners betrayed Kingdoms subverted the Church coufounded the Gospel and as with the dregs of Pandora's box poured out more mischief on the World then all the Devils in Hell could ever have wished Thus say the Libels and why may not Libellers take the Liberty to speak as largely in Prose as Poets do in verse specially when they are backed from the Pulpits and warmed with the zeal of the good old cause But fair and softly Is any thing of all this true 't is printed Where there be a thousand books in Paul's Church-yard that affirm all this and more then this And is that enough How many books where there sold in that place and all England over in which his late Sacred Majesty was made the cause of all our misfortunes How many against the Bishops How many against his Royal Majesty that now reigneth Nay who is there of any merit in England living or dead in our memory whom Libels do not seek to defame If it were enough to be accused no body would be innocent 't is a trade now a dayes to write slanders for a lively-hood Many crimes are laid to the Jesuits but the Jesuits deny them all And whosoever will judge right must hear both sides and then give his verdict Till this be done an argument of the Jesuits innocency is that they challenge their Adversaries to appear and speak to the particulars and profer that they will be content to be cast if they be proved nocent On the contrary an argument of errour in those that inveigh against the Jesuits is that they make it their first care to disguise themselves they speak behind the curtain and rove in generall propositions crying out against all without being able to instance in any I do not hope to stop the Torrent of Slandering tongues the floud of a foul mouth is too impetuous to be ever dammed up in this World yet I hope that I shall be able to vindicate the Society so far as that though fools still babble yet wise men shall see they have no reason and though malitious men still envy yet all charitable Christians shall plainly perceive that the fault lyes on their side that reprehend Vertue and carp at learning and impugne that which they do not or will not understand The means which I intend to take for to do this is nothing else then to give a plain and true account of the Jesuits Life and Doctrine and to set down clearly what is objected against the Jesuits and what they answer for themselves This I hope will satisfie for I conceive it very true which Henry the 4th King of France usually said That to know the Jesuits is enough for to make any body love them I hope it may happen to those protestants that read this short treatise as Adam Conizen relates that it happened to divers Ministers in Germany who when they had bought the Constitutions and Rules of the Society at Franckfurt fair which had been taken in some Colledge they read them over with a great deal of eagernesse and after all pronounced this sentence of them That there was nothing there that could be reprehended save only the Roman Religion And perhaps some will joyn with that great wit Sr. Francis Bacon once Chancellour of England who in his Advancement of Learning speaketh thus of the Jesuits When I consider their pains and diligence as well in the culture of learning as information of manners the saying of Agesilaus touuhing Pharnabarus comes into my mind Talis cum
sis utinam noster esses But for the judgment I leave it to the Reader my part shall only be to give a candide narration And besides the love to truth which I have I reflect that all those who during their long exile abroad with his Majesty had acquaintance with the Jesuits would disprove me if I should say any thing contrary to what they know and have seen of the Society I shall therefore say nothing of them but what I know to be true and conceal nothing that I think may seem to give a full knowledge of the Jesuits as far as can be comprised in a short treatise I have not meddled with the English Jesuits and scarce named them The reason is because I do not see anything of moment objected to them particularly They have been alwayes faithfull at home and dutifull abroad as his Majesty hath been often graciously pleased to express Though many have cryed them down as the publick Incendiaries yet it is most manifest that never any one of them sided with the Kings Enemies but as far as they could by themselves and their friends they abbetted the Royal party They were in his Majesties Camp where some of them lost their lives others being taken endured imprisonment and other hardship There is scarce one Jesuit in England who cannot reckon some of his neerest Relations that dyed for his Majesty and none whose kindred and Friends were not ruined in their fortunes for the same quarrel And all that depended on the Jesuits sided with his Majesty Among these were some signal persons as Sr. Henry Gage Sr. John Smith Sr. John Digby who having been formerly Scholars of the Society were actually when they dyed Penitents of the Jesuits And Mr. Peter Wright who was executed at Tyburn was particularly maligned because he was Sir Henry Gage's Priest As for Persons of prime Nobility who lost great Estates and endured much hardship for his Majesty The late Dutchesse of Buckingham the late Marquesse of Worcester the late Earl of Shrewsbury were Penitents of the Society to say nothing of others On the contrary the Rebels preached every where against the Jesuits and wheresoever they took any of them they imprisoned and executed them so that I do not see any need to prove their Loyalty Certainly if they had had any principles of Rebellion in their heart they would in these publick revolutions have shewed them at one time or other Yet though for loyalty I conceive them blameless I will not say but that happily the indiscretion of some may have deserved a censure but I hope that the errours of a few will not rise in judgment and countervail the merits of a long tried fidelity in many I confesse I have heard some mutter something of the errours of some English Jesuits abroad for which they feared all might smart Yet where sins of blackest malice have found indulgence I hope indiscretions will not be remembred That Royal clemency that could indemnifie Rebels and bury in oblivion unparrelled injuries done to his Father and himself by perfidious and Sacrilegious Subjects will doubtlesse be a Sanctuary to all that ask pardon for those errours which have been incurred without malice This I say on supposition that there may have been some errours which I know not of We are all men and as men we may err we are also Christians and as such we ought to pardon It is with this mind that I desire the Reader to peruse this little tract consulting still with reason and charity both which ought to joyn in every Christian censure I have nothing more to add but only that whereas my mind doth give me that some that malice the Jesuits and would have them alone excluded from the priviledge of free born Subjects and barred from the publick clemency will endeavour an answer to what I have here said all that I desire of them is this that they will be pleased to have a care to say nothing but what they can make good as I do undertake for all that I have here writ I do not flatter my weakness so as to think I have said well yet my conscience dictateth that I have said true And in that sence I shall be willing to justifie every thing that I have here said and if perhaps through humane frailty I have erred in any thing I shall humbly acknowledge it and thank him that shall shew me my errour An Account of the JESUITS Life and Doctrine CAP. I. Of the Author and end of the Society of Jesus IGnatius of Loyola Founder of the Society of Jesus born of a good Family in Biscay being a Souldier in the Year 1521. received a dangerous Wound Whilst he was under the Surgeons hands in a long cure he chanced to read some good books if notwithstanding we may call that a chance which was by a special Providence of God ordained for his good and the Salvation of many For these Books inflamed his heart so with thoughts of Eternity with the horrour of Sin with the example of Saints with the love of God that he was suddainly Metamorphosed into another Man and resolved on a new life Being therefore at length recovered he set hand to work and put in Execution what in his Infirmity he had projected Instantly stripping himself of all the goods that formerly he enjoyed or hoped in this World and quitting house and Home in a poor beggarly Weed he went to Manresa where he was unknown to all the World There in an Hospital to which he had Voluntarily offered himself to tend the sick he lead a most strict life and made it his study to subdue himself as much as possibly he could He went bare foot and bare head pittifully clad and lodged on the cold ground He prayed seven hours a day on his knees used frequent mortifications of hair-shirts chains and disciplines Except Sundayes he fasted every day though even on the Sundays too his dyet was as bad as a fast for he never eat any thing but what he begged of Almes and of that the best he gave to the poor and himself lived on the refuse which seemed not good enough to give to the beggars All this he did for to surmount himself and learn perfectly that lesson which Christ hath made the first for all those that in his School will study perfection Si quis vult venire Post me abneget semetipsum tollat crucem suam quotidie Luc. 9.23 He that will follow me let him renounce himself and take up his Cross every day Whilst he thus sacrificed himself in the fire of divine love God who is never behind hand with his servants endowed his soul with many supernaturall gifts and illuminated him with abundance of celestiall lights As fast as he went out of himself so fast he entered into the secret mysteries of God and Christ in which as in a most perfect prototypon he saw the Idea of the Society which he was afterwards to found