pretended desire of resigning the Generalty of his Order when he knew that it would not be permitted his flattery of Great Men whom he continually praised but winked at their faults and never blamed them altho their Actions and Behaviour were condemned and decried by the unanimous consent of all men Lastly to produce one Instance of a just suspicion of Imposture in performing Miracles I will represent it in the words of Vitelleschi At his last Voyage into Spain one night the Saint did a great Miracle The People flocking to his Chamber and staying with him late he desired them to withdraw and carry away the Candle with them saying God can enlighten the darkness of the night When they were gone Ignatius fell to praying loud The People after some while return and peeping through the Keyhole see a light in his Chamber He that will not suspect some artifice in this matter may safely believe all the Fables of the Alcoran If Ignatius wanted a light in his Chamber why did he order the People to carry away the Candle with them If he intended to perform a Miracle why did he not suffer the People to stay and be spectators of it But what if after all Ignatius should be found an Heretick He would ill deserve the dignity of a Saint and at the next reformation of the Calendar might be perhaps expunged out of it It seems St. Francis was somewhat inclined to Heresie and no thorough Catholick For his Epistle to the Priests of his Order is prohibited in the Index Romanus and he is known to have laid those Principles of Evangelical Poverty which afterwards founded the Heresies of the Fratricelli and Beguini or Beguardi This Opinion of the perfection and excellence of Evangelical Poverty was common both to Ignatius and St. Francis and was condemned as erroneous and heretical by Pope Iohn XXII But the charge of Heresie falls much more heavy upon Ignatius For he believed Scripture to be the only Rule of Faith a Doctrine which passeth among our Adversaries for a rank Heresie For magnifying the greatness and perspicuity of the Divine Illuminations and Revelations conferred on him and boasting that he received the knowledge of Christianity not from the ordinary Rule of Faith but by extraordinary Illumination he was wont to use these words That if the Articles of Faith had never been recorded in the Scriptures or as another Author expresseth it altho no Monuments or Testimonies of the Christian Religion had remained he should still have believed them and that even had the Scriptures been lost no part of his Faith had been diminished Which manifestly supposeth him to have believed that the knowledge of the Christian Religion must necessarily be received either from the Scripture or from extraordinary Illumination and that there was no medium which might serve the ends of a Rule of Faith. Besides all this Ignatius pretended that in Prayer his Soul acted passively not actively and did nothing but receive the influences of the Spirit and upon the authority of a personal Apparition believed that the Flesh of the Blessed Virgin was contained in the Eucharist in the Flesh of her Son there substantially present Now among the Articles of Molinos condemned last year in the Inquisition at Rome one is that in contemplation the Mind acts purely passively not actively and one of the pretended Opinions of Signior Burrhi condemned of Heresie by the Inquisition and which he was forced to recant in the Year 1668. was That the consecrated Host hath in it the Body of the Mother as well as of the Son. If Ignatius had lived at this time I do not see how he could have escaped being condemned for an Heretick by the Inquisition It will be no small confirmation of the truth of whatsoever I have hitherto observed or advanced concerning Ignatius if it be proved that in his life-time he was esteemed an Enthusiast an Impostor and a Heretick by many sober indifferent and learned Men of the Church of Rome if he was censured as such by the publick Tribunals of the Church and suspicions of this nature often entertained of him by whole multitudes of his Hearers Saint Francis at his first conversion was esteemed to be a Mad-man by his Father who therefore put him in Chains and shut him up in a dark Room to cure his Distemper His Townsmen of Assisium entertained the same opinion of him where the Rabble commonly persecuted him whensoever he appeared in publick with stones and dirt and followed him with loud outcries Civilities which both himself and his Disciples often received in other Cities of Italy when they first began to preach Ignatius fared no better His own Brother far from esteeming his Conversion a work of Heaven told him it was only the effect of a melancholy distemper which betrayed him to extravagant courses The People of Manreze where he vented the first heat of his Devotion in wonderful Austerities thought him a Fool and a Mad-man insomuch as whenever he appeared in the Town the Children pointed at him threw stones at him and followed him in the Streets with shouts and outcries Going into the Holy Land to preach the Gospel the Franciscans far from believing him to have received a Divine Mission charged him to depart on pain of Excommunication At Alcala he was suspected by some of Sorcery by others of Heresie and put into the Inquisition for a Visionary but at last acquitted on condition of deserting his extravagant methods of Religion Soon after he is clapt into the Inquisition a second time for instilling foolish Principles into his Hearers and when he removed to Salamanca both he and his Disciples were put in Chains by the Inquisition there as Hereticks and Seditious Persons and not absolved but upon condition of preaching no more Soon after his arrival at Paris he is accused to the Inquisitors for seducing Young Scholars but by the intercession of Friends dismissed After some time he is sentenced to be whipt publickly in the Hall by the Regents of his Colledge upon the same account and before his departure accused a second time of Heresie to the Inquisitors chiefly for his Book of Exercises which his Enemies called the Mysterious Book At Venice he was decried as an Heretick and a dangerous Impostor and by some accused to have a Familiar which informed him of all things At Rome both himself and his Companions were accused of Heresie by a famous Piemontese Priest and were esteemed by the People to be Hypocrites and false Prophets No body for a while dared to appear in the company of such miserable wretches whom they thought to be destined to the Stake When he first proposed the erection of his Order to the Pope the Cardinals generally disapproved and opposed it After it was approved it met with great opposition in France in his life-time Many decried it as monstrous and said that he who had
trifling Actions of their most illustrious Saints and fond Superstitions practiced in their several Monastick Orders Processions Worship of Images Saints and Relicks and indeed in every individual Office of the Church of Rome cannot but conclude without descending into the merits of the Cause That the complex Religion of the Church of Rome is not of Divine Institution and deserves not either to have been revealed by God or to be believed by Men and if he believeth these opinions and practices to be inseparable from Christianity he may justly reject it and rationally conclude it to be a Cheat and the Author of it to have been an Egregious Impostor That these Reasons have really tended to the Prejudice of Christianity and made innumerable Apostates from it the sad Experience of Italy and other Romish Countries beyond the Seas demonstrates where if the Relations of modern Travellers do not deceive us few real Christians can be found out of the credulous Multitude whose Ignorance disableth them from perceiving the Follies and discovering the Falseness of their Religion It is therefore the peculiar Glory of the Christian Religion that it was revealed and proposed to the World in the most Learned of all the precedent Ages That it did not take shelter in the Ignorance of Mankind nor confine its Mysteries to the more remote and ignorant Part of the World. The Learning and Philosophy of the Heathens was then raised to the highest Perfection and the Knowledg of all Arts and Sciences had gained equal extent with the Roman Empire so that we may truly affirm the World to have been then more universally Learned than in any Age either before or since At this time especially God chose to publish his Revelations to the World and made the more Learned part of it the Stage of his Promulgation that so in future Ages Christianity might not be subjected to any just Suspicions of Fraud and Imposture nor the precedent Reception of it be ascribed to the foolish Credulity of ignorant and illiterate Proselytes The Doctrines of it were proposed and Miracles in testimony of it wrought in all the more famous Cities of the Empire in their publick Schools and Synagogues in their Theaters and Universities in Rome and Athens the great Centers of Learning and which deserveth to be observed more especially in Greece and Asia Minor the most Learned part of that then Learned Empire This secured the Christian Religion from all possibility of Error and Illusion since if either the Doctrines of it had been ridiculous and irrational or the Miracles fictitious and pretended the Learned Auditors and Spectators of those times who were not in the least prepossest in favour of it would soon have discovered the Cheat and vehemently decried the Error This consideration also tendeth no less to the Advantage and Reputation of the Reformation that it was advanced and undertaken in a most learned and knowing Age That all the Authors and Promoters of it were Persons of extraordinary Knowledg and that purity of Religion and success of Learning as they decreased proportionably in all Ages so they returned into the World at the same time Whereas Popery oweth all its Triumphs and Success to the Ignorance of Mankind began with the decrease of Learning and was well nigh ruined with the Restauration of it All the peculiar Articles of Popery were founded in the dark and ignorant Ages of the Church their most illustrious and admired Saints were rude and illiterate Idiots devoid of all Learning and oft-times of common Sense their Miracles are ever acted either in barbarous and credulous Ages or in remote Corners of the World we poor Hereticks who have the greatest need of them for their Arguments being so often baffled nothing but Miracles can now convert us can never be blessed with the sight of them and at this day it flourisheth proportionably to the Knowledg or Ignorance of all Countries In France the most Learned of all the Popish Countries it is forced to put on a new Masque and by many subtil and nice Expositions Qualifications and Interpretations is almost lost and refined into nothing In Italy if we may believe the Reports of modern Travellers it hath few Proselytes besides the ignorant and unlearned Multitude the more intelligent sort being become either Atheists Scepticks or Molinists In Spain alone and the Indies doth it flourish in its full Vigour where so gross an Ignorance hath possessed the minds of Papists that they believe their Inquisitors no less Infallible than the Apostles and imagine that their Images can both hear and see them So necessary and useful is Learning to Mankind which may fix Rules to distinguish true from pretended Revelations discern real from feigned Miracles and discover the Illusions of Impostors that the decay of it hath in all Ages and Countries been accompanied with a deluge of Error and Superstition But in nothing is the use and necessity of Learning and its subservience to the interest and purity of Religion more conspicuous and apparent than in preventing the Dangers and Follies of Enthusiasm to which in the present Constitution of mankind all revealed Religions cannot but be obnoxious I do not hereby imply the necessity of any extraordinary Learning or accurate Knowledg of all Sciences in all Ranks and Orders of Christians but an ordinary Prudence and right understanding of the nature and genius of Christianity which if assisted by the Direction of more learned Guides and Pastors as God in the first Institution of Christianity intended it should be will abundantly secure all Persons from the delusions of designing or ignorant Enthusiasts However a great part of Mankind will continue to want this Prudence and neglect this Direction especially when the means of Knowledg are studiously kept from them and no Instruction to be obtained but from external Ceremonies or the Dictates of a Confessor as it is in all Popish Countries Such Persons profess Christianity not out of any Conviction of the Truth or Divinity of it but induced by the Prejudices of Education and Authority of Example understand not the true Principles of their Religion and instead of a rational Faith possess only a blind Credulity This affords a fair opportunity of success to the Frauds and Artifices of Impostors who will never want Proselytes in an ignorant and credulous Auditory and if upheld and favoured by the publick Applause of the Church may draw Multitudes of Admirers after them The great Engines of these Religious Juglers were ever Enthusiasm and the pretence of Miracles The latter have long since ceased and could never really be performed by Impostors It remains therefore that they betake themselves to Enthusiasm possess the People with a belief of extraordinary Revelations communicated to them of an inward Familiarity with God of continual Divine Inspirations of acting solely by the impulse of the Spirit and following the infallible Dictates of an inward Light. This Opinion must be raised and continued by bold
Imagination born in the Grotto at Bethlehem crucified in Mount Calvary and ascending in Mount Olivet This was solely to be ascribed to the delusion of a violent and strong Imagination wherewith all the precedent Actions and Arguments demonstrate Ignatius to have been endued To which may be added this following Circumstance When Ignatius first set himself to learn Grammar at Barcelona he found his Spirits by long habit so stongly enclined to these Enthusiastick Imaginations that he could not divert them any other way Whence instead of conjugating the Verb Amo he did nothing but form Acts of Love. I love thee my God said he thou lovest me he could think of nothing else for many months However if this Illusion had stopt in his own Breast it had been no great loss but when it imposeth upon multitudes of credulous Believers and draws them into pernicious mistakes when after a juridical Inquiry the reality of such Apparitions is allowed and attested by the publick suffrage of a large Christian Church in the Canonization of the Visionary we cannot but deplore the Credulity of Mankind and Corruption of that Church If the truth of all Christian Religion depended upon the attestation of such a Church as is pretended well might all sober Heathens suspect the Miracles of Jesus Christ or even deny the existence of such a God who chooseth the greatest Fools for his highest Favourites and obsequiously attendeth the Motions of every petty Visionary More rationally did Philostratus proceed in writing the Legend of Apollonius Tyaneus to whom he ascribes no more than two Visions and both of them undertaken for the improvement of Knowledge the first an Apparition of Achilles's Ghost to him for the resolution of divers Critical Questions the other of himself after death to a company of Friends to assure them of the Immortality of the Soul. If the external Visions of Ignatius were rare and wonderful the internal Illuminations of his Understanding were more extraordinary From these he pretended to have received a more perfect knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion than could have been drawn from the ordinary Rule of Faith to have learned all the Secrets of the Trinity and seen the very Essence of God. The pretence of this Infused Knowledge is the chief and most essential Character of Enthusiasm others may be properties or effects of it but this constitutes the very nature of it Thus Apollonius pretended to know all things by Divine Inspiration to act by a particular Illumination to know the state and adventures of his own Soul before it was united to his Body according to his notion of Transmigration and to discern the Souls of Ancient Heroes imprisoned in the Bodies of Beasts By this Divine Illumination he knew Domitian had laid snares for him and if we may believe Hierocles performed all his Miracles not by Enchantments or Spells as was commonly believed but by an hidden and preternatural knowledge of Divine Matters Saint Francis understood many secret things by the Spirit knew all the Mysteries of Scripture not by the help of Learning but by Divine Revelation unfolded many things to his Disciples by the assistance of Divine Visions which transcended Humane Capacity preached always Sermons to the People not composed by his own Industry but ex tempore suggested by the Spirit and lest you should suspect these Discourses to have been highly impertinent Bonaventure assures you they were not empty or ridiculous but full of the vertue of the Spirit piercing the very marrow of the Heart and ravishing all his Hearers with mighty admiration But to raise your Opinion yet somewhat higher of the wonderful Illuminations of this Saint Christ corporally appearing to him revealed to him many things which it was unlawful for him while he lived to publish and the great and wonderful Mystery of the Cross wherein all the gifts of Graces and treasures of Wisdom lay hid concealed from the Wise and Learned Men of the World were at once fully revealed to St. Francis. Yet all this is inconsiderable when compared to the infused Knowledge of Ignatius Iohn de Avila a famous Spanish Doctor declared that he knew no man more interiour nor filled with more supernatural Wisdom than Ignatius and Oviedo one of his Disciples out of a long experience of him gave his Opinion when Ignatius desired to be eased of the Office of General that he ought not to be opposed since being a Saint he had Lights which ordinary Christians had not Soon after his Conversion at Manreze he began to receive Visions and Illuminations He was hitherto meanly instructed in the Mysteries of the Faith but now he is elevated in the Spirit and hath all particularly the Trinity so clearly represented and revealed to him by an internal Light that he can speak of nothing but the Trinity and that with so much unction and light in such proper and sublime Expressions that the most Learned admired him and the most Ignorant were instructed by him The Illustrations which were communicated to him upon this Subject cannot be expressed how often our Lady and the three Persons of the Holy Trinity appeared to him and taught him what was their will touching this Article how many internal Consolations he received and how great Secrets were revealed to him In one of his Visions he saw the Blessed Trinity as plainly as we do one another under a corporeal representation The very notions of his Institute were obtained by Illumination and all the rules of his Order composed by the assistance of an internal Light. Immediately after his Conversion in time of Mass at the elevation he had an intuitive knowledge that the Body and Blood of Christ were truly contained under the Elements and in what manner they were there nay He saw with his bodily Eyes Iesus Christ and his Blessed Mother which kindled in his Soul new desires of following the Cross. One day he had a profound knowledge of all the Mysteries of Religion together and at another time praying before the Cross all which he had formerly learnt were set before his eyes in so full a light that the verities of Faith seemed to him to have nothing obscure in them and he remained so enlightned and convinced of them that he hath been heard to say that had they never been recorded in Scripture he should still have believed them and that had the Scriptures been lost no part of his Faith had been diminished But none raiseth the Merits of Ignatius in this respect so high as the Anonymous Author of his Glory who relateth his Divine Illuminations in these words Before he had yet learned any thing he was so fully instructed in a sublime manner by an intellectual Vision of the unity of the Essence and Persons of the Trinity that being but an Idiot he was enabled to write a Book concerning the Trinity in the beginning of his