of the Iesuites as in the name of the Company of Iesus granted them by Paul the 3d. at their desire with many extraordinary and unheard of priviledges as they themselves testify when they say That the Popes having said in their Bulls That this Society hath been raised by the Providence of God their judgements in these things are not subject to errour because it seems God gives his Oracles by him But the Popes infallibility is subject to contest when he censures the Books of three famous Iesuites Poza Bâ—uny and Cellot with such brands of errours and heresies condemned that he makes their Books of the number of prohibited ones so dangerous and pernicious that they ought not to be read or imprinted and then when he darts the intire thunderbolt of Anathema against the Book of Rabardean the Iesuite saying That the Saâ—â—ed Congregation having maturely examined the propositions contained in his Book hath judged that there are many rash scandalous offensive to devout eares seditious impious intirely destructive to the Papal Power contrary to the immunities and liberties of the Church approaching very near the heresies of the Innovators erronious in the Faith and manifestly heretical For there is cause to believe that the Pope consults not his Oracle when he acteth against it and attributes to the famous Authors of this August Society falsities impieties and heresies approaching neer those of the Innovators And why should not the Disciples of the Iesuites piously believe that it were easie for this High Priest on these occasions to have seen false visions than that these Oracles of Doctrine and Truth should become lyers Now me thinks these good Fathers ought to reserve their humility and modesty for some occasion and not call her the Little Society when they tell us their Society is the Oracle of the Soveraign Pontife and spread through the four parts of the world Elogies that denote her of the greatest grandeur excellence and extent of all Societies in the Universe But it may be that when they say This Society fastned on the breast of the Pope they would qualifie her with the title of Little lest men should think she might lye heavy on his stomack and be a burden to him because of her greatness As for what they add that the Church loves their Society more than she ought or the Society deserves 't is a modesty not to be approved for that in Truth the Church ought intirely to love those who are not only the Restorers of the Life of Christ and the Apostles among men A Society of Angels and Heroes but are besides the Oracle of Doctrine and Truth which he who represents her Head and her Spouse carries on his breast the owes them not love only but respect Truth being venerable of it self and the Oracles of Truth deserving a double Reverence As to that they insinuate of purpose to sweeten the Envy of other Orders against their Society That other Orders of Religion are in the Church what the Manna the Tables and Aarons Rod were in the Ark of the Covenant and that they call these three things the three Oracles of the Ancient Religion to make the Title they assume of the Oracle of Doctrine and Truth more passable and currant I fear the able persons of other Orders will believe those good Fathers do but jear them making them believe that these three things were sometimes Oracles which they never were but continued shut up in the ark without use in the external paâ—â— of religious Worship whereas this Oracle of Judgement Doctrine and Truth was the most august and necessary Ornament of the High Priest without which he could not execute any function of Priest and Supream Judicature It seems by this that the Iesuites would reduce other Orders of Religion to continue locked up in their Monasteries as reliques in their Chests and as the Manna Tables and Rod were in the Ark and keep for themselves all the honourable imployments of the Church which can have no favourable construction among other Orders most men even those who make profession of piety not loving to be mocked with false titles of honour pretended to be given them by those who assume the true and most illustrious to themselves But though the patience and charity of good men of other Orders were sufficient to bear this mockery with simplicity it would not excuse the malignity of the Iesuites in offering the indignity The Example of Bishops who preferred that of the Society to their Character and Titles of Honour A Bishop in 1602. Declared publickly That he gloried more in the title of a brother of our Society than in that of a Bishop and esteemed it a greater Ornament than his Cross and his Myter lib. 3. c. 7. pag. 363. Not long since a Bishop of the Realm of Naples who in his life-time had more love for his Mitre than for the Society said at his Death O holy Society which I have not sufficiently known untill now nor deserved to know thee thou surpassest the Pastoral Crosier the Mitres the Purple of Cardinals the Scepters the Empires and Crowns of the world Lib. 5. c. 10. p. 667. An excellent Document for our Lords the Bishops Archbishops and Cardinals if they love their Churches and Dignities more than the company of Jesuites that is if they are more BishopS Archbishops and Cardinals than Jesuites When they appear before God Christ will not ask them whether they have loved their sheep whether they have fed and guided them aright and laboured for the good of the Church but whether they have loved his Companions the Jesuites upheld the interest and favoured the enterprizes of this Little Society of these Little and Beloved Benjamins A Bishop of France who knew the Iesuites better than this Prelate of Italy and was endued with a more Episcopal science told these Fathers That there was great difference between the Order of Bishops and theirs for that there is no doubt that the former was of an holy institution and its Authority necessary for the preservation of the Church though all were not Saints who were invested with the dignity but as for the Iesuites without examining particulars the whole body was of no value it being more than probable thâ—â— the spirit of the world and politick respects had contributed more to their establishment than the Spirit of Christ and that the Good Ignatius brought into it was presently destroyed by the interessed Ambition of his Successors Three great Archbishops of Malines who possessed that dignity immediately one after the other and dyed reputed Saints had thoughts very different from those of the Italian Bishop For the ancientest of the three speaking of the Iesuites said These men shall flourish at first but afterwards become a Curse to all People his Successor added These men shall trouble the Church The last Propheeyed of them in these words These men shall become as the dung of the Earth To conclude the last Bishop of
used and slighted by the Jesuites who made him goe three times to Rome and jeared at the Bâ—lls and Censures be brought thence Pag. 281. they declared a contempt parallel to the former though not in their Actions yet in their intentions and writings against D. Maâ—thew De Castro Bishop in the East-Indies who being a Braman by Nation was consecrated by Pope Vrban 8 th and sent to make missions into the Kingdom of Idabria This good Prelate did that which neither the Archbishop of Goa nor all the Orders of Religion were able to effect either by Intreaties or Gifts in 140 years which was to obtain leave from the Moorish King to build Houses and Churches throughout all his Kingdom But the Jesuites so misused this poor Bishop that they forced him to break the course of his mission and to make three journeys with very great difficulties to Rome where Fa. Iohn Baptista de Morales of the Order of St. Dominique and Missionary of China left him in 1645. labouring against his Enemies who hated and treated him with great slights and Contempt This F. Mâ—â—rales hath a Letter written by a Jesuite to his Provincial wherein are these words There is come hither a pitifull Negro for Bishop but is gone among the Moors because he loves not to live among the Portuguese ' T is a shame for the Nation that such a man should become a Bishop The Fryar addes he found this poor Bishop on his bed â—ick for the contempts and ill usage of the Jesuites that he stay'd with him a month to comfort him that he solicited his business at the Congregation De propaganda fide and having obtained all necessary dispatches he went in person to see them executed But the Jesuites mocked at all that was done and would not alter their conduct for any Bulls or Censures This story may inform how sincere and candid they are in their expressions for speaking of a Bishop they say He is gone among the Moors that is in their Language turned Infidel again whereas he went thither for Conversion of Souls And this may serve for an instance of their zeal who use in this manner those who employ themselves to propagate the faith and in their writings to their superiors make it their business to slander the Bishops The Ambition and Tyranny of the Jesuites in the foundation and administration of the Iâ—ish Colledges in Spain P. 294. The Jesuites express zeal for the faith when they perswaded the King of Spain and several Lords to contribute to the foundation of Colledges for the Irish for education of their Youth who came into Spain and to render them capable at their return to do their Countrey men service but this was the Cloak only to their intentions and designs to make themselves more powerfull in being Masters of those Colledges and their Revenues The Receipt doth alwayes much exceed the expence yet they complain still and treat those poor Schollars so ill and with such scorn though some of them be Priests that they seem to be their And when they demand necessaries the Jesuites retrench their Pensions and sometimes the Rectors and Coadjutors beat them and misuse them that they are obliged to make defence They serve themselves of them as their Grounds and while they fare daintily upon Estates whereof they have only the administration by right they give to the owners but a poor piece of Beef as the most splendid entertainment These poor strangers have presented to his Majesty a Memoriall containing five Articles wherein they represent the ill usage of these tyrants the domination they exercise over them and how they do publiquely risle their Estates A succinct Abridgement of the Relation of the persecution raised by the Jesuites against Don Tray Hernando Guerrero Archbishop of Manille in the Philippines written in Spanish by a Nephew of the Archbishops Don Hernando Guerrero Archbishop of Manille in the Philippine Islands having called an Assembly of the Superiours of Religious Houses and other learned persons of greatest repute in his Archiâ—piscopal City to consult them about a scruple of Conscience which was that the Fathers of the Company of Iesus in that Countrey preached and heard Confessions without permission from the Ordinary the resolution of the Assembly after several meetings was That it was the Archbishops duty to demand of the said Fathers what permission they had to exercise those Functions which he did but had no other Answer but that they had Priviledges The Archbishop not satisfied with this endeavoured by way of right and legal pursuit to oblige them to shew by what power they exercised this jurisdiction by Declaring the permissions or priviledges they pretended to But they were so far from giving him satisfaction that they named a Canon which had a Dignity in the Church of Manilâ—e but the Archbishops enemy to be their Conservator This Conservator proceeded against the Archbishop encouraged by the favourable occasion he had from the spleen of the Governour Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corynera against the Archbishop for having refused to give the Iesuites a House and Garden of pleasure belonging to the Archbishoprick and of the Gift of the Augustine Fryars who bestowed it for a place of retreat and repose for the Archbishops And because this House was very convenient for the Fathers of the Society and that the Governour was their particular friend as his Confessors and Councellors they assembled together and resolved to chase away the Archbishop The Governour willing to execute this resolution sate President of the Audience without the assistance of any but a single Councellor who was found dead on the morrow without Confession The Archbishop demanded leave to make his defence but the Governour instead of hearing him being animated by the Jesuites resolved by their advice to execute upon the place the banishment of the Archbishop All the Religious Communities having been informed that the Ministers of Justice were gone to the Archbishoprick resorted to their Prelate and with their Tapers in their hands advised the Archbishop to put on his Pontifical habit to stay in the Chappell and hold the Eucharist in his hand to serve him as a Buckler against the Governours tyranny and the violence of the Jesuites The Governour having intelligence of what passed commanded Souldiers forthwith to march away with Matches lighted and their Muskets cocked to cause all the Fryars to depart the Chappell and leave the Archbishop there alone And when the Provincials the Commissaries the Priors and Wardens had answered the Souldiers that they were there to pay their respects to the holy Sacrament the Governour gave the Souldiers new Orders on pain of death to execute his Commands and dragg them by force out of the Chappell The Souldiers obeyed him driving out and dragging away all the Fryars thence and though some of the most ancient and venerable amongst them in hope to preserve themselves from their violence covered themselves with the Archbishops Pontifical habit the Souldiers
THE Moral Practice OF THE Jesuites Demonstrated by many remarkable Histories of their Actions in all parts of the World COLLECTED Either from Books of the greatest Authority or most certain and unquestionable RECORDS and MEMORIALS By the Doctors of the Sorbonne Faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for Simon Miller at the Star at the West-end of St Pauls 1670. THE PREFACE Of the Design of this BOOK THere 's no doubt but all who love the purity of the Moral Doctrine of Christ are very sensible of the Corruption the Jesuites labour to introduce thereinto by the Opinions they have invented But it may be said That nothing is more dreadful in the Conduct of these Fathers than to see them pursue those corrupt maximes in their Practice and that of the many things they allow in others contrary to the Law of God and the principles of the Gospel there is not any they commit not themselves to satissie their Avarice or to promote the Grandeur and Glory of their Society To prove this is the business of the present Collection of those Learned and Pious Doctors of the Sorbonne to inspire the World and the Jesuites themselves with horror at their detestable Morality there being no better way to demonstrate the danger of the looseness they authorize that latitude and remisness whereof they are Patrons than by discovery of that abyss of Injustice Avarice Lust and Other Vices wherein they have plunged them Let none imagine we were moved to gather the different pieces that make up this Collection with design to decry or prejudice the Society God is our witness we have undertaken it out of the Charity we have for them and the grief we are sincerely affected with to see them so unhappily engaged We sigh to â—ind them the causes of the loss of so many souls they seduce and draw with themselves into the precipices of Errour and Vice We deplore their obstinacy in shutting their eyes against the Light held forth by the Pastors of the Church to guide them out of their wandrings into the right wayes of Piety and Truth and tremble when we consider that every day they literally fulfil the Prophesies delivered of them in the infancy of their Society For is it not a terrible judgement of God not only on the Jesuites but the whole Church that almost in all parts of the world providence hath raised persons wise illuminated and full of the Divine Service who from the first establishment of this Company have foreseen all those mischiefs it hath wrought in the Church its turning topsie turvy the Ecclesiastical Discipline its troubling and disordering all Estates and Conditions and that in the mean time the same Company hath been permitted to mount to that degree of Power and Authority that they have laid at their feet almost all that is Great in the World that those of their Order are Masters of almost all the Consciences of Christendom that they resist all Bishops and very often attempt against their Soveraigns Melchior Canus Bishop of the Canaries that Great Luminary of the Church of Spain in these last ages no sooner discovered their appearance in that Kingdome but he believed the end of the world drew nigh and that Anti-Christ would forthwith appear for that the Fore-runners and Emissaries the Titles they confess he calls them by began to walk abroad He published every-where not only in particular discourses and private Conferences but in his Sermons and publick Lectures that he discovered in them all the marks which the Apostle declared should be seen in the followers of Anti-Christ And when Turrien one of his Friends who waâ— turned Jesuite desired him to forbear persecuting his Order and alledged on that occasion the approbation given him by the Holy See he made him no other Answer but that he held himself obliged in Conscience to advertise the people as he did that they might not peâ—mit themselves to be seduced by the Jesuites D. Jerome Baptista de Lanuza Bishop of Albarazin and Balbastro a person admirable for Holiness and Piety and particularly endowed with the gifts of Prophesie of Wisdome and Vnderstanding composed an expresse work to make it appear that the prophesie of St. Hildegard ought to be understood of the Jesuites and that it was easie to discern all the lineaments of the Society in the pourtraite she had made Tarvisius Patriarch of Venice confirmed by an Oath upon the Holy Evangelists his prediction that they should one day be expelled that City for their Factions and Politique Genius which happened accordingly five hundred years after for their having raised strange factions and seditions in the bosome of that Republique All the Catholique Vniversities particularly those of Cracovie Lovaine and Padua those of Spain and France the Bishops the Clergy all the Orders of Religion and the Courts of Parliament almost every where opposed their establishment as contrary to the good of the Church and the security of States And in particular The faculty of Theology at Paris in their Famous Decree which we cannot too much Commend Declared Unanimously THAT THIS SOCIETY APPEARED DANGEROUS AS TO THE FAITH APT TO TROUBLE THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH TENDING TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE MONASTIQUE ORDERS OF RELIGION AND MADE MORE FOR DESTRUCTION THAN FOR EDIFICATION GOD hath not only permitted that all those Great Men of Spain Italy Almaigne Flanders Poland and France should predict the mischiefs this Society would do in the Church but hath raised many of the Society iâ—self even Generals of their Order to represent and set forth with that Energy and Liberty wherewith Charity and Truth do inspire men the corruptions crept in amongst them and by their means spread through the whole body of the Church The learned Mariana hath made an express Treatise Of the Defaults he had observed in their Government and makes it appear That at the time he writ their Society was so much disfigured That had St. Ignatius their Founder come again into the world he would not have known it Mutius Vitteleschi their sixth General reflecting upon that criminal facility wherewith those of his Congregation embraced All the New Opinions that â—ended as his phrase is to corrupt and ruine the Piety of the Faithful sayes in a Letter addressed to the Superiours of all their houses That there was reason to fear the latitude and liberty of Opinion of some of the Society especially in the matter of manners would not only utterly ruine the Company but cause very great mischiefs in the whole Church of God So many Voices and Oraâ—les ought â—ertainly at least to have inclined the Jesuites to examine themselves and reform in their Doctrine and Conduct what so many Great Men judged capable to destroy their Society and annoy the whole Church But by a just judgement of God what St. Paul the Apostle declares to be the condition of every one Who doth not embrace the Holy Instructions of Christ and the Doctrine which is according to
the Community undertook and for whom by consequence they are responsible To which he adds that 't is visible that among the Jesuites 't is not so much the particular persons that offend as in other Orders of Religion who correct and expell them that are guilty but that a general dissoluteness hath seized the whole body which he justifies by the words of Azeuredo and Villa Sante Iesuites of Spain who renewed the Sect of the Illuminated Heretiques and having been imprisoned and interrogated upon their abominable Tenets answered the Magistrates That if they were imprisoned for them they might have as well imprisoned the Society As for the Author of the Theatre of Jesuitisme the name of La Pietaâ— which he assigned was not his truâ— Name He was a Natural Son of the deceased King of Spain and hath been alwayes reputed very considerable in the Court at Madrid Nor was it his intention by that assumed name to conceal his composure of that work which he hath alwayes publickly owned as the true Author thereof and had it been feasible to have confined the Book to the Kingdome of Spain he had prefixt his Name since none in that Realm but knew it his work but his modesty and humility inclined him to hide his name from those of forreign Countries who were ignorant of it He was a Dominican when he composed the Book his name is Ildefonso de S. Thomas a Sancto Thoma And though his Book by the Credit of the Jesuites hath been condemned and put into the Index Expurgatorius it hindered him not from being named successor to John de Pallafox in the Bishoprick of Osme and presently after in that of Placentia worth fifty thousand Crowns annual rent and lastly in that of Malaga which he is new possessed of having preferred it before that of Placentia though it be worth but twenty thousand Crowns which is thirty thousand Crowns less than the other to justifie this choice he said that the Monastery where he made his profession was in the City of Malaga though the more probable cause may be that being a person of most accomplished piety having past all the Offices and Dignities of his Order he gladly embraced the occasion by his dis-interesment on this occurrence to ediâ—ie the Church and lessen his account to be rendred to God which would have been increased had he continued in charge with a Bishoprick so considerable as that of Placentia being one of the richest of Spain after Toledo The King of Spain hath acknowledged him his Son and he was made Bishop in the Life of the King The three Bishopricks mentioned were all void in less than three months so that he hath stood charged with no other Church but only that of Malaga and is highly esteemed in his Diocess He is reputed one of the greatest and most zealous preachers this day in Spain and applies himself much to Confession and the direction of Souls committed to his care His Mother was Maid of Honour to Isabel of France late Queen of Spain and was Sister to the Marquesse Mortara Governour of Milan but being with Child the King to save his Honour married her to the Marquess Quintana one of the greatest and richest Lords of his Court The Marquess had that passionate love for this Lady and gave her those Evidences of real affection that she held her self obliged to testifie her acknowledgements by revealing the secret of her being with Child by the King before her Espousals with the Marquess her Husband But all the Protestations she could make of inviolable sidelity to him could not save the poor Marquesse from receiving in this news his mortal wound for though he gave his Wife no testimony of it he was seized with such grief upon the report that it brought him to his end within two months after The Marquesse having lain in retired into a Monastery whence she took great care of her Sons education and afterwards became a Nun and died there But having before told her Son who he was he took a resolution to take the habit of St. Dominique in the City of Malaga about which is scituate the Estate he quitted to become a Fryar of that Order wherein he lived ever since and continues at present with the dignity of Episcopacy and a high reputation of singular piety The Merit and Piety of the Author of the THEATRE of JESUITISME takes away all doubts of the truth of the facts he reports What remains but to add a word of those pieces that immediately follow this PREFACE and to observe that they are common to all parts of the Collection being Prophesies whose accomplishment is seen in all the Stories whereof the work is composed which are but effectual Comments and Explications of what hath been predicted It is not our purpose in this Treatise or others to heap all the â—xamples that might be brought on the Subject which might require an infinite number of Volumes but to pick out the most Authentique and proper to justifie that we undertake to prove Mar. 31. 1670. Licensed and Entred according to Order THE Moral Practice OF THE IESVITES The words of St. Paul taken out of the third Chapter of the second Epistle to Timothy Interpreted of the Iesuites by the Pious and Learned Bishop of the Canaries Melchier Canus the Famous Divine of the Order of St. Dominique Acknowledged accordingly by Oâ—landin the Iâ—suite in the History of the Society 1. KNow then that in the latter dayes perillous times shall come 2. For there shall be men whâ— shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters prâ—ud blasphemers disâ—bedient to parents unâ—hankfull unboly 3. Without natural affection truce-breakers false-accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good 4. Traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures mâ—re than lovers of God 5. Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away 6. For of this sort are they that creep into houses and lead capâ—iâ—e silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts 7. Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth 8. Now as James and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 9. But they shall proceed no further for their â—olly shall be made manifest to all men as theirs also was 12. Yea and all that will live Godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution 13. But the evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived The Prophecy of St. Hildegard ADVERTISEMENT THe Prophecy of St. Hildegard hath been applyed to the Iesuites by many persons and among others by D. Ierome Baptista de la Nuza of the Order of St. Dominique afterwards Bishop of Albarazin and Balbastro whose Elegy may be seen in the Acts of the Chap. General of that Order Celebrated at Rome in 1629. 'T is said of him that all his life he observed exactly the rules of his Order even in
least a Legacy very considerable â—esides what they hook in by a thousand Artiâ—â—es in the life-time 33. Proudly humble Humble in appearance but really proud abasing themselves outwardly while their thoughts are employed to exalt themselves above all the world 34. Piously hard-hearted in the necessities of others This we see in their dealings with the Children and Kindred of some persons who have left their Estates in their hands in confidence of a compassionate and pious regard from them to the necessities of the Orphans but they have deceived the hopes of the Parents and miserably frustrated the expectations of the Children The poor receive almes from the Superiours of other Orders so often that they are ashamed to begg of them but who ever saw the Iesuites give away a penny they could make use of In short they are better Preachers than practisers of that Precept in the Gospel Give Almes for they get every day more and more wealth retain tenaciously what they have gotten and hardly part with other mens Estates in their hands on what Accompt soever they are possessed of them but though they see the owner perish for want they 'l not spare him a farthing The world is full of instances of this kind 35. Sugred Slanderers With what sweetness do they express al the evil they please of other men and to shew their compassion for the misfortunes of other Orders they will recount the fall of some Fryar and covering their malignity with some specious pretence will write things to the disparagement of Religion and its professors or any other persons who are not in their books Ribadeneira their founders Companion in the book he writ of Tribulation produces the Example of Savanarola only that he might say he was a Dominican to cast odium on the Order by the miscarriages of a particular person 36. Peaceable Persecutors They persecute so gently that they seem not to touch men and in the mean time make so cruel a warre against those they love not that no secret poyson kills more infallibly It is their Maxime Never to forgive but to dissemble a while to gain opportunity of a severer revenge 37. Lovers of the World The truth of this Prophecy is demonstrated by the Iesuites care to root themselves in the world to settle themselves in the Palaces of Kings and Princes Ecclesiastical and Secular exalting themselves by degrees of favour till they render themselves Masters of all and how hardly they are gotten out of a Palace where they have once put their foot in though but a moment We see the same in their buildings their Churches and the Artifices they use to draw into their houses the most considerable persons of the places they live in their Balconies their Galleries their half-Paces their Foot-clothes their Canopiâ—s their Foot-stools and other things never used by other Orders who studied more to undeceive then to deceive the world consider further how they have undertaken the instruction of youth how they prefer in their Classes the Sons of Gentlemen and rich Tradesmen â—carrying them in triumph to be Emperours and Captains of their Schools though not perfect in the Alphabet not regarding the poor who are excellent Schollars and deserve the honour bestowed on the illiterate Their principal intention is not the instruction of youth but to gain by any means the amity of the rich and favour of the powerful to exalt themselves and become Masters of the World which they intirely love and at the same time most slavishly serve 38. Sellers of Indulgences The Pâ—â—phecy speaks not of the favours and indulgences of the Popes which their Order hath not as the Mendicants but is to be understood of their facility in granting large permissions to sinners by their loose opinions whereof their books are fuâ—l which never fail to sell well as being a Mine of convenienceies for wicked men and a magazine of means to accommodate sinners some to keep in their possession the Estates of other men other to break the fasts and â—light the abstinences and other laws of the Church and others for matters of greater infamy 39. Disposing all things for your convenience The whole world may learn of them the course they are to take for profit and convenience they think of all things foresee all things provide and dispose all things at a thousand leagues distance that nothing may scape them and though this appear impossible 't is said of them that they reason of things impossible to render them possible This may be well understood in another manner for whereas the devout Founders of Religious Orders imployed all their care to root out thence all sensual delights and pleasures of life as the principal enemies of a Religious Estate and of the Cross of Christ the Iesuites seem to bend all their thoughts for good accommodations good Linnen good Stuffs good Beds good Chambers good Horses and good Provisions for their Voyages good Victuals besides extraordinaries which they want not the best Fruits the whitest Bread and the best baked and old Wine of all which they have in their Constitutions a Law which they observe punctually and peradventure more then the Law of God so that you may strictly call them with St. Hildegard Ordinatores Commodi a name most proper for them for they have reduced carnal worldly enjoyments under rules and recalled them into Monasteries whence the Saints had carefully banished them 40. Admirers of Luxury Which denotes their inclinations to sensuality and the pleasures of the palate and other irregular passions 41. Ambitious of Honour We may fill a volumn on this Articles for they pretend to a Supremacy in Knowledge in Vertue in Sanctity c. In the time of Gregory the 13 th they attempted to take from the Order of St. Dominique the Mastership of the sacred Palace and were so importunate with that Pope that they engaged him to propose it in Consistory and had obtained their desires had not the Cardinals represented the great services done the Church by the Dominicans Ribadeneira the Iesuite in the last Book he writ giving an account of the Customes of his Order saith that though they have neither Quires nor Fasts nor Discipline nor Penance c. yet they deserve higher esteem than all other Orders whereupon he tells us admirable stories For instance when he gives the reason why the Iesuites assist not at Procâ—ssion he saith It is because they ought to have a 〈◊〉 Hâ—nâ—urable Rank than any other Order and out of humility absent themselves To back this strong reason he invents a Fable which I understand not how other Orders can endure That it was declared in the Council of Trent That the General of the Iesuites ought to have a place more Honourable then the Generalls of other Orders 〈◊〉 impudent lye they publish not to the world but disperse in private among their Confidents the Book that contains it till the lye gather force and then the Book shall be publick in
least as great a share in the triumph of the Iesuites as the Angels He that is really vertuous however things happen continues so still But when one is not in reality an Elias or a Saint but goes to heaven only by emblem and in a machine all is in disorder when the machine fails This may be confirmed by another accident at the same time and in the same City One of these Fathers praising the Society in his Sermon compared it to a clock which is under Regulation and regulates all other things but as he enlarged magnificently upon the subject the Clock of their house by misfortune struck above a hundred and by the irregularity caused such disorder in the auditory that they could not forbear mocking the Preacher and the Society which they publickly said was as just and regular as their Clock The Society is a great miracle like the world and therefore needs not do miracles The principal and greatest miracle of the Society is the Society it self There is not in the world a mâ—racle greater than the world The same may be said of the Society as being a little world of is self This great body of the Society moves and turns by the will of one man to move it is easie but to trouble it difficult He that sees a multitude of men flourishing in age excellent in parts and eminent for their vigour and vivacity of spirit conducted and governed so long in the Cariere of Vertue and learning for the service and advantages of others without any interruption in their course and upon examination dâ—â—h not judge it the principal and greatest miracle let him not expect another from the Society 'T is my opinion that as in the world there is no greater or other miracle than the world it self so there cannot be found in the Society a greater miracle than the Society Think it not strange then if the Iesuites do not any particular miracles as other Orders of Religion in the first age of their institution have done and expect not the same from Ignatius their Founder who did no miracle at the foundation of the Order as Ribadeneiro in the first edition of his life assures whereas other Founders have done so many since the Society is a publick and perpetual miracle as the Creation and preservation of the world I know it may be said nevertheless that the Foundation Propagation and subsistance of the Church over all the Earth in the time of Paganisme was much more miraculous in the first ages than the foundation and extent of the Society of Iesuites among Christians and that the Church did millions of miracles by the Saints and Bishops who succeeded the Apostles which by consequence were so much more desirable in the Society of Iesuites as it is an Apostolical Order if they interpret of it the Prophecy of Abbot Ioachim destin'd for conversion of Hereticks insidels and ill Christians to which miracles would be very subservient But we must believe that though no miracles are to be found amongst them as they say here were not to esteem them less Apostolical or less Holy for these sixty or eighty years last past since the death of their first Fathers because their Society is a miracle of miracles and that though the Orders of St. Benedict St. Dominick and St. Francis did so many miracles in the first age of their institution it proceeded not from their sanctity alone as if it were greater than that of the Iesuites who are as they say A Society of Angels of new Apostles new Samsons full of the Spirit of the Lord and the most perfect of all Orders but because God would supply the defects of those Societies in general by the particular miracles of their individuals whereas the default of particular Iesuites who work not miracles is recompenced made up by the general miracle of the Society it self and the imperfection of all the members in particular by the universal perfection of the whole body That the Society is the Oracle on the breast of the High Priest who decides infallibly thereby When I consider the square form of the Oracle I discover the Society figured thereby as spread into the four parts of the world And when I behold the three rowes of four precious stones to a row whereof it consisted These good Fathers are deceived for according to the Text they ought to have said four rowes of three precious stones to each row it represents to me the divers works of several of this Society which transoend Nature but are confirmed by the Doctrine of Truth When I call to mind that this Ornament was carried on the breast of the High Priest of the Iews methinks I behold this little Society wrought in as it were on the breast of a more holy Pontife The Church will now be offended with these expressions because she loves the Society not only more than she ought but more than indeed the Society deserves Nâ—â— will other Orders of Religion wonder as it since this binders not but that they continue as always in the Church what the Table the Manna and the Rod those three Oracles of the Ancient Religion and instruments of so many prodigious miracles were in the Ark of the Covenant Lib. 5. c. 5. p. 622. This sublime Elegy of this admirable Society obliges us to render it extraordinary honours for can men say more than that it is the Oracle of the Doctrine of Truth which the High Priest of Jesus Christ carries on his breast and on his heart as the Scripture saith in Exodus It was called The Oracle of judgment because as Vatablus and other Interpreters say The High Priest never gave judgment in matters of importance but he had this Ornament on his stomack and as others say Because it contained the Iudgement and Decree of God that the High Priest should be odorned with a soveraign doctrine and most perfect accomplished purity of manners So it may be believed with reason that the Society of Iesuites so straitly united to the Pope is the Oracle of his judgement being as eminent in Knowledge as Sanctity Nor may men admire any more that they maintain the Pope infallible provided he first consult the Divines and Scholastical Doctors among whom they esteem themselves with good right to hold the first rank as masterâ— of the world the most knowing of mortals the teachers of all Nations the Apollons the Alexanders of divinity and the Prophets come down from heaven who deliver Oracles in oecumenical Councels and so sharing infallibly with the Pope on whose heart they tell us here their Society rests as the Oracle of Doctrine and Truth which he ought to consult in affairs of moment as the High Priest of the Iewes never consulted the Deity but clothed with this Ornament so that we are to conclude that there is just cause to believe the Pope infallible when he takes advice of this famous Oracle of Truth or doth any thing in favour
Cahors lately deceased whose piety was famous throughout the world declared what value he had for the Iesuites having desired the Abbot of Terrier Grand Vicar of Alby present at a fit of sickness which brought this Prelate almost to his end being about four months before his death to give some advice on this subjectâ— to the Bishops his friends whereof the Abbot acquitted himself having written to M. de Pannez in these words Aug. 22. 1659. My Lord of Cahors is of opinion that the Iesuites are a Flayle and ruine to the Church so that he believed that neither your Lordship nor any other Bishop faithfull to God ought to imploy them and hath charged me to tell you and others who tender the safety and advantage of their Dioceses that you â—ught not to admit them into your houses for that gives them credit and gains them Authority with the people The admirable Conformity of the Society of Jesuites with the Church IN that proud Pourtraiture on the frontisâ—piece of this book the Society is represented as a young Virgin with three Angels oveâ— her head Crowning her with the three Crowns of Virginity Learning and Martyrdome On her right side she hath an Angel sounding a Trumpet and saying Ignatius hath accomplished 100 years On the left side another Angel sounding also a Trumpet and saying Let him fill the whole world Totum impleat Orbem She hath the name of Iesus on her breast and saith Not unto us Lord not unto us give the Praise Non nobis Domine non nobis In her right hand she hath a Pen in her left a flaming Cross at her right foot Time and at I say not under her left foot a Mitre and a Cardinals Cap. On the brimms of the Picture are six Emblems answerable to the six books of this work whereof the five first representing the Society in General shew her resemblance with the Church The first Embleme is The Name of Iesus with the Sun and Moon Crescent under it with this Inscription above The Society Derived of Iesus and below this She hath all that the Sun hath The second Embleme is a Globe of Light with this Inscription above The Society spread over all the World and below this She shines in all the World The third Embleme is a Moon in the middle of the Night with this device above The Society doing good to all the World and below this She preserves all things in the midst of night The fourth Embleme is a Moon Eclipsed by the interposition of the Earth between it and the Sun with these words above The Society suffering evil from the World and below this Eclipsed by the opposition of the Earth The fifth Embleme is a Sun Moon and shadow of the Earth with these words above The Society more glorious by persecution and below these Fairer for the shadow These five Emblemes are common to the Church with the Iesuites The sixth regards the Province of Flanders in particular being The Lion in the Zodiack with these words And this the Belgick Lion Goes about At the basis of one of the Columns is a Palm to shew she shall flourish as that Tree and on the other side a Phenix to shew she shall flourish like it according to Tertullians interpretation who renders the Greek Septuagint She shall flourish as a Phoenix But 't is a mistake from the equivocal term Phoenix which in Greek signifies a Phoenix and Palm-tree though the Hebrew word signifies only a Palm and all other interpreters have rendred it accordingly 'T is to be observed that they cite Vlysses Aldronandus a famous Author who hath treated of Birds because he saith there are many Phoenixes quoting his words to that effect that their Society may be taken for a Company of Phoenixes At the foot of the Picture are two little Angels one holding a Glass with these words Without spot which may be also said of thâ— Church being termed to be without spot oâ— wrinkle the other carrying these words written Without Money The one denoting their Chastity the other their Poverty At the end of the abridgement of this Volumn they have painted the Image of a little Jesus framing a Ring on an Anvill which he gives in Affiance of his marriage to the Society which he espouses as a pledge of its eternal duration with these words To give the Ring of Aeternity for a Covenant of an everâ—â—sting Marriage In the first book they represent their Order â—s a new foundation of the Church St. Peter â—nd Ignatius were at Rome St. Paul and Xaveâ—uâ— among the Nations Twelve Apoâ—tles ten Jesuites 72 Disciples 〈◊〉 Jesuites by the first Bull of Paul 3. lib. 2. â—p 2. As the vertue of the Holy Ghost was shed on the â—ostles so was it on St. Ignatius newly reconed with God after his conversion with as great Earthquake and equal fame lib. 5. c. 5. P. 5. It is allowable therefore if I mistake not to â—ibuâ—e without Arrogance to the Society of â—s that Oracle which the Royal Prophet pubâ—â—d in Sion the Church of Iesus Christ. Very â—â—ellent things are spoken of thee thou City God the most High hath established thee made thee immoveable against all advers ibid. It cannot be doubted but that the Society is exactly like the Church if you consider further tâ—â— persecutions she endures and that we may say 〈◊〉 her what St. Hillary said of the Church thâ— it is her property to conquer when mâ—st beset wiâ—â— Enemies to clear her innocence best when accusâ— with most malignity and to conquer when forsakâ— by the World lib. 5. cap. 1. p. 582. St. Jerome sayes of the Church that it 〈◊〉 creâ—ses by Persecutions and is crowned by Maâ— tyrdome we may say the same of the Society aâ— ask with Horace What part of the World but â—et with our blood Lib. 5. c. 4. â— 619 620. When I consider the great favours and beneâ— done by Kings and Popes to our Society it appeâ— credible that the Prophecy of Isaiah which 〈◊〉 rejoyce to see accomplished in the Christian Churâ— belongs in some sense to the Society of Iesâ—â— Kings shall be your Nursing Fathers 〈◊〉 Queens your Nursing Mothers ye shall 〈◊〉 the milk of Nations and the Breasts of Kinâ— the Lord shall be your everlasting light 〈◊〉 your God your Glory the dayes of my peoâ—â— shall be as the dayes of a Tree and the woâ—â— of their hands shall continue many Ages â—â—mit me to believe that in this Prophecy Isaiah not only cast his thoughts on the Church and â—â—ple of God but upon Ignatius and his Faâ—â— the brethren of the Society and their exceâ— works lib. 5. Ora. 1. p. 686. Iesus is to the Iesuiâ—es what he is to â—hâ— Church and fights for them as for Christianity lib. 1. c. 4. p. 70. To prove the truâ—h of this they cite these words of St. Jerome on the 70 th Psalm Let us give thanks to Jesus our Chief for he is our Captain who fighteth for
us and gains us the victory I will endeavour to make it appear that Iesuâ— hath shewed to the World that foundation and propagation â—f the Society is like an illustrious monument to make his Name admirable and remâ—in to perpetuity for the declaration of his Glory As Christ said to his disciples that they should be hated of all men for his Names sake which is the Name of Christians the whole Earth being then Pagan and Idâ—latrous so they pretend they are hated and persecuted only for the name of Jesuites they bear though all Europe be Christian and adores Iesus Christ And as Iesus Christ is in the Vessel of the Church they pretend he is also in the Vessel of their Society being as they call it an Epitome of the Church within the Church Lib. 4. c. 1. Our Fathers had recourse to God in tempests being seized with the like fear as the Apostles when they ran to Christ asleep in the ship But Iesus is so in the Vessel of the Society that as it was the Mariners safety to have in his Bâ—at Caesar and his fortune so the name of Iesus we bear is our assurance though it be also the cause of our perils he shall command the winds and the sea and there shall be a calm Lib. 4. p. 483. All these passages cited by these Fathers in their favour are no solid proof that the Authors of holy Scripture and the Prophets spoke of them but shew their presumption and self-love in entertaining themselves with the thoughts of their excellencies whereof they are so full that they see them in every thing This is the cause they have so little respect for Holy Scripture that they fear not to make it serve the desires of their heart and to substitute themselves in the place of Iesus Christ and the Church They have reason to fear lest by abusing the Word of God with so much indignity and insolence they make themselves of the number of those of whom St. Paul in his 3d chap. of the 2d to Timothy saith that having a form of godliness they deny the power thereof The pre-eminence of Ignatius above Moses the Apostles and Founders of Religious Orders One of the three Sermons made by the Dominicans at the Canonization of Ignatius which the Iesuites have made theirs by translating it out of Spanish into French by their F. Sollier and have been censured by the Sorbonn hath these expressions We know that Moses with his Rod in his hand did great Miracles in the Aire the Earth Water Rocks and in all he thought good to the drowning of Pharaoh and his who'e Army in the Red Sea But it was the inâ—ffable Name of God which Learned Tostatus Bishop of Aula sayes was graven in the Rod that wrought the Miracles I was no great wonder then that the Creatures seeing the Ordinances of God their Soveraign Lord and King subscribed with his Name rendred him obedience Nor is it to be mâ—rvelâ—ed that the Apâ—stles did sâ— mâ—ny Miracles for that they wrâ—ught all in the Name of God by the vertue and power he had given them seâ—ling it with the Inscriptiâ—n In my Name they shall cast out Devils speak with new Tongues c. But that Ignatius with his Name in Paper should work Mâ—racles greater than Moses and equal to the Apostles that his Seal had so much authoriâ—y that the Creaâ—ures â—ave it quick and sudden obedience 't is this that makes him the subject of our greatest admiration Upon which Article the Sorbonn in their Censure printed in 1611. saith that this manner of speech whereby the name of the Crâ—atures seems equalled to that of Almighty God and where Miracles are lessened and exteâ—â—ated for having been wrought in the Name of God lastly where uncertain Miracles are preferred to those which ought to be held for Articles of Faith is scandalous erroneous blasphemous and impious And in the 91 page of the same Sermon While Ignatius lived his life and manners were so grave so holy and so elevated even in the opinion of Heaven that none but Popes as St. Peter Empresses as the Mother of God some Soveraign Monarch as God the Father and the Son had the happiness to enjoy a full Vision of it Whereupon the Sorbon also hath declared That this Assertion suggesting that God receives benefit by the Vision of a creature is scandalous and contains manifest heresie In the third and fourth page of the 2 d Sermon Doubtless the Founders of other Religious Orders were sent in favour of the Church But since these last dayes God hath spoken to us by his Son Ignatius whom he hath established heir of all Whereupon the Sorbon hath further declared that the application of the Text of St. Paul In these last days literally to any other but Christ is scandalous erroneous and â—avours of blasphemy and impiety Proud Comparisons of the Foâ—nders and Generals of the Society with Emperours Conquerours and Great Princes of the World They make an Apostrophe to Mutius Vitâ—â—lâ—schi their General and say All Posterity shall know that you have been the first General in the end of the first Age as Rome called their Emperours by the name of Augustus from the end of his time Lib. 1. Dissert 5. p. 17. They compare the union of the Jesuites to that of two Roman Emperours and to that effect tell us of the Emperour Aurelian where two Emperours are graven with the Sun above them giving them both equal irradiation with this Inscription The agreement of the Caesars comparing the concord of the Jesuites to that of Heathe Princes When Alexander had tamed the Horse called Bucepbalus Philip his Father told him that he must entertain thoughts worthy the Generosity of his heart and by the power of Arms seek a Kingdom equal to his invincible courage Macedon being too little for him When Ignatius had so valiantly subdued the unruly passions of corrupt Nature we have reason to believe that Christ stirred him up to undertake the greatest matters in the world using the like expressions and saying Rome and Italy are too narrow for thy courage Europe is not large enough seek out new Realms and new Worlds wherein to plant the Trophyes of thy Religion Lib. 1. c. 10. Oâ— 3. p. 118. The Mission which Christ gave his Apostles to subdue all the Earth was somewhat more effectual but not expressed in such terms of Pride But these Fathers are not ashamed to make the Saviour of the World and great pattern of humility to speak in Language suitable to their Arrogance and Presumption They say further That Ignatius had no need to imitate the Captain of the Hebrews in commanding the Sun to stand still that he might have time to compleat his Victory for he in the perpetual course of his illustrious and most glorious Victories hath followed the Sun from East to West almost throughout the World And having conquered himself he had cause to hope to conquer the Universe What could be
they dare not trust any further they suggest to him that he may desire leave to go to the New World to which he hath no sooner consented but they make this forced desire pass for an extraordinary â—eal for the Faith and a necessary banishment for an Apostolical mission And for one that undertakes these Voyages sincerely and with good intentions there are twenty which go not but upon carnal considerations and become worse after than they were before Lastly as they make use of every thing for their Glory they are not ashamed to count those of their Society Martyrs who dyed for their Crimes and to make them companions of Christ crucified who justly suffer as capital offenders they make it their merit to have been driven out of England and France though they drew on themselves that just punishment for their crimes for having taught men to kill Kings and confessed or instructed three Assassinators of the Monarchs of France Barriere confessed by Varada Iohn Chastell instructed by Guignard and Ravaillac confessed by F. D'Aubigny as all the World may read in history insomuch that Guignard was hanged and strangled for having inspired Chastell his Schollar in Philosophy with the Parricide and having taught it in his writings In England Gardner and other Jesuites were executed for having been Complices in the Powder-treason where they would have blown up in a moment the King Queen and all the great men of England by a piety worthy the moderation of these new Apostles as they call themselves and justly as not led by the spirit of the old They have been also expelled from Venice for raising factions according to the Prophecy of the Venetian Patriarch Farnisius who apprehending their factious and politick Genius foretold 50 years before swearing on the Evangelists as themselves confess in this book p. 494. that they should be one day driven out of Venice To conclude though in other Provinces and Cities of Europe and other parts of the World they have been often ill treated for their Plots and Cabals they forbear not to say by a horrible blasphemy that these persecutions are the Crowns of their piety humility and innocence as they were in the Sacred Person of Jesus Christ. Priviledges and Extraordinary Advantages of the Society above other Orders I. Priviledge That the Society is a Virgin THis we have seen in the proud Image on the frontispiece of this book where the Society is represented as a young Virgin though Ignatius their founder had lived in the disorder of a man of Warr before his Conversion as Ribadeneira testifies in his life and was a slave to the vanities of the world and those unruly passions of corrupt nature as they express it in this image of their first Age and at last of a dissolute Souldier became a Saint of Penitence Whereas other Religious Societies in a Christian humility confess their weakness acknowledge their imperfections and dare not speak of their vertue though most of their Founders were really Virgins as we learn by their Lives and were Saints rather of innocence than Penitence On the other side these Fathers consider not that when they boast their Society a Virgin with so much earnestness they give occasion to say that they ought to be ashamed that their Casuists make this Virgin speak with so much impudence words so little becoming a Virgin and capable to corrupt the Masters that teach and the Schollers that shall be sufficiently unhappy to follow them II. Priviledge That it is the Company of Iesus And that the use and Office of his Name particularly belong to them THe name of the company of Iesus and of Iesuite is the most August upon Earth not Granted them by Popes of meer motion but desired and demanded by their first Fathers according to the express terms of the first Bull of their Institution And yet if you will believe them 't was God himself gave it them as they say expresly in these terms Et nobis Divinitus concessum est lib. I. or 4. p. 127. St. Thomas in his Summe of the body of Divinity demands why Christians have taken their name from Christ and not from Iesus and are called Christians and not Iesuites and answers it is because they partake of the holy Unction denoted by the name Christ by receiving it in the Sacraments so that they may be called the Christs and Anoynted of God whereas they have no part in the signification of the sacred name Iesus which signifies Saviour they being The saved and he alone the Saviour Whence it is that this name is not the sirname but the proper name of Iesus Christ which was given him by God by the ministry of the Angell because he was to save his people in delivering them from the sins which held them captive And that at this Adorable name every Knee should bow in Heaven in Earth and under the Earth Hence it is also that the whole Sorbonne in the year 1554. with unanimous consent and not as they pretend some Doctors of the Sorbonne having been consulted by the Parliament of Paris found this name of Iesuite extraordinary and in their famous Censure give it a mark calling the Iesuits The New Society which particularly attributes to it self the unusual title of the name of Iesus And M. Eustache de Bellay the illustrious Bishop of Paris who also was consulted by the Parliament of Paris having given his advice in Writing proposed in the Assembly of the Church of France held at Poissy by the command of the King in 1561. that if they should be received it should be only as a Society and Company and not as a new Order of Religion and that they should be obliged to take another name than that of the company of Iesus or Iesuites This was held so reasonable by the whole Assembly Generall of the Gallican Church that she received them not but with express Charge that they should be obliged to take another title than that of the Society of Iesus or Iesuites and under many other conditions to which they then submitted out of politick prudence but performed them not having then no other end but to establish themselves in France and knowing according to one of their Emblemes that as soon as their Society should put in a foot it would move the whole Land p. 321. by tumults and popular seditions before they could be removed out of their places But because they have taken this Glorious Name and preserved it by the favour of a Pope who not being able to resist their importunities gave them as many Bulls as they thought fit to desire as themselves have observed they say That the use and office of this Name which consists in fighting for the Church seems to belong to their Fathers by the particular priviledge received by the Popes Bulls since none can be ignorant that we can prove to our glory by every dayes experience that no man almost hath declared war against the Faith and
Religion in these evil times who thought it not his duty to swear an immortal enmity against our Fathers So that the passage in Scripture may be as properly applyed to our Society as it was to St. Paul I will shew him how much he must suffer for my Name p. 123. Why should I trouble my self further to consider the boldness of these new Apostles who pretend to make as many Articles of Faith as they please to find new senses of Scripture in corrupting it and turning the passages from the true sense to apply them to themselves for if you believe them 't was not so much of St. Paul as of their Society that Christ spake when he said I will shew him how much he must suffer for my Name They who have any love for their salvation are much concerned that the faith be not corrupted by these new additions and those who receive easily these Articles of Faith of the Iesuitick Church ought to fear lest they forget those which Christ hath taught his Church what they add in the same behalf is an imagination without ground pretending the hereticks as they call them make war particularly against them by reason of the Name of Iesus which they bear to shew it is not for the Name of Catholicks which they have common with the Bishops the Popes and an infinite number of Doctors Ecclesiastical persons and Fryars but because by particular priviledge they bear the Name of Iesus in bearing that of Iesuites As if the hereticks believed not in Iesus Christ and held not the Name of Iesus Sacred and adorable as we and as if it were not known that Calvin hath put the Name of Iesus at the top of every page of his Institution to endeavour to sanctifie his books by that Holy Name as the Iesuites make use of it to hallow their unholy actions and opinions In another place with a pride proper to them and on design to draw glory to themselves from the hatred of hereticks towards them say they all the enemies of the faith fling their darts at us as if the maintenance of holiness and the Catholick Religion depended on the subsistence of our Society alone being perswaded that if this pillar of publick safety were pulled down and ruined there could be nothing easier than intirely to destroy the faith with the piety the ceremonies and worship of the Church As this thought is suitable to the good opinion the Iesuites have of themselves I believe them at least as capable of it and all other thoughts of self-conceit and vain glory as the worst of those Hereticks But as to the particular animosity between the Lutherans and Calvanists and these fathers all the learned know that it proceeds not from an opinion that they are better able to reâ—ute their errours than the Doctors of Universities the Bishops and Cardinals it being notorious to the world that the books of Ruard Tapper the famous Doctor of Loven of Drued of Augustin Sâ—ucchius Eugabinus a Bishop in Italy and many other excellent persons of the faculty of divinity and other eminent Prelates are stronger against the Lutherans than those of the Iesuites and that when compared with Saintez upon the Eucharist or Cardinal Perron against the Lutherans the books of the Iesuites look like those of Students or School-boys besides it comes not to pass because they of the Reformed Churches think them more holy than other Orders of Religion though they publish themselves altogether perfect and Ramparts of the Doctrine of Faith for they know as well as the Roman Catholicks that their spirit is less humble their life less austere their knowledge less Ecclesiastical their charity less patient and meek their piety less dis-interessed than those of other Orders but 't is because the Iesuites preach no other thing in their books against hereticks but that they ought to be exterminated and burnt And that those Hereticks who have not zeal enough to seek the Glory of false martyrdom love more the charity and gentleness of Catholick Doctors and Bishops who desire not the death of a sinner but that they may be converted and live than the irregular zeal of those who labour not so much to convince men by Truth and overcome them by Charity as to destroy them by injuries and ruine them by violent counsels which they inspire into Kings and Rulers against them Another Reason that the Hereticks are more inclined to ingage with them than other Catholick Doctors is that those Fathers fill their books with new Opinions fantastick tenets and corrupt maximes which give the hereticks great advantage against them this medley of ill things making it more facile for them to desend themselves against their writings and to answer their Reasons Other Orders are said to come of the Saints who have founded them as the Benedictins from St. Benedict the Dominicans from St. Dominique and so of the rest which is the reason they are called the Orders of St. Benedict St. Dominique c. But the Iesuites have this advantage above all other Orders That their Company is the Company of Iesus himself the Society of the Son of God the Order whereof he is the true Author and that bâ—aâ—s his Name That Christ is their first Fâ—uâ—der the Virgin the second and St. Ignatius only the third lib. 1. c. 6. St. Ignatius was so humble that he thought himself unworthy to give the Name of Ignatians to his Companions after the custome of other Founders wherein he seems willing to have imitated the Apostles whose humility St. Augustine praises in that they gave not the Names of Paulians and Petrians but Christians to the faithfull but if we will judge â—right of things we may say the Society hath taken the Name of their Author for Ignatius attributing all unto God in the founding of his Society and nothing to himself and declaring that Christ was the first and principal Author thereof he did it with great reason that according to the custome among the Philosophers in the Christian Religion and the Orders thereof the Society should bear the Name of their Author without mention of Ignatius who desired to be concealed p. 68. Wherein he pretends that the Divine Excellence which is found in the foundation of the Church in that it hath Iesus Christ for its first and true chief and founder and in that he hath given it the surname of Christian from his name Christ appears in the foundation of this Society whereof they say Christ is the true and first Author and gave it his Name incomparably more August than his Surname as if he had waved his general Society of the Church that he might reserve this highest honour for the particular Society of Iesuites That Virgin knowing and Martyr Society as another calls it and if you take their word you may believe Ignatius had the place of St. Peter Xavier of St. Paul their ten first Fathers that of the twelve Apostles and the sixty first Iesuites
established by the first Bull of Paul the 3 d. that of the seventy Disciples of our Lord. Ignatius say they was first inclined to take the name of the Company of Jesus in 1538. after a vision in a desart Church on his way to Rome where God the Father appeared to him recommending Ignatius and his two Companions Peter le Teure and Iames Laines to his Son Iesus Christ bearing his Cross who turning to them said I will be favourable to you at Râ—me This vision sayes Maffens the Jesuite was the principal ground of the Name of the Society of Iesus But 't is a strained conclusion and will hardly pass for a good inference in any but Iesuitical logick that because Christ promised to favour them at Rome it was his intention that a particular Order should assume his Name which the Church in reverence durst not take for the reason before given out of St. Thomas Besides we have equal evidence of Christs appearing and promising his assistance to several founders of other Orders who never thought it a commission to call themselves Iesuites which is not common to all Christians as they tell us lib. 1. c. 4. p. 69 the name of Christian which is the Surname of Iesus being the Name common to the whole Church which hath expressed that respect to the August Name of the Saviour of the world which the Popes have to that of St. Peter which they never assume though his successors in the Chief Chair of Christianity III. Priviledge That they are the freemen and companions of Iesus Christ a vision wherein they are preferred before the Capucins and Chartreus Monks 'T Is for this reason that whereas the Apostles styled themselves the servants of Iesus Christ the Iesuites have the Priâ—iledge to call themselves his Freemen and his Companions pag. 24. And that in a vision at Paris St. John the Evangelist having appeared to a young lad and asked him whether he would be a Capucian or a Chartreus the Bâ—y answering what God pleased St. John left him a paper and told him see there three Orders choâ—se which you will the paper containing the names of the Capucins and Chartreus in silver but of the Iesuites in Golden Letters which they attribute to the Sacred Name of Iesus they bear and visibly insinuate that as Gold is the most precious of metals so their Order is the most venerable and divine of all the Orders of Religion They that flatter the ambition and pride of the Grandees of the world exalt them in titles and magnifie their dignities which often serve to make them more vicious But 't is strange these Fathers who are All Perfect should boast so much of their Name as if to call one Iesuite were to Canonize him a Saint But let them take heed left for their unworthiness of the Name it rise in judgement against them to their condemnation great titles are common to good and bad men but as ambition is the ordinary purchaser so they fall commonly into the possession of wicked persons it being generally observed that none are more worthy contempt than those who by their titles claim preferance to other men the Bishop in the Apocalypse said he was rich and wanted nothing as the Iesuites pretend themselves the Companions of Christ and exalted above other men as the Name Jesus is of a superlative dignity but they like that Prelate know not that they are poor naked and blind said to live but really dead Rev. c. 1. IV. Priviledge All those who dye in the Society though never so young have accomplished an Age before their decease THough Old Age be rare in the Society where Study consumes men in the flower of Yâ—uth yet no man dyes in the Sâ—ciety but he hath lived a full Age laugh not at the Expression 't is not extraordinary but demonstratively true Virtuous Actions extend Life and lengthen our dayes Iesus was old at his birth Solomon at twelve years of age Daniel and Joseph when very young and so were Francis Strada Gonzaga Stanislaus Ubaldin Cajetan Berchman and others Studious men repair the brevity of life by reading of histories and the capacities which of themselves are long a ripening by the help of that Divine Wisdome and Heavenly light conspicuous in our constitutions quickly attain compleat maturity which makes the least Apprentices of our Company as men of one hundred years old in Knowledge and ripe in the Sciences before the flower of their Age. The whole world admits them to be such for as soon as initiated in the Society they are presently Presbyters which signifies old and called Fathers though in their Child-hood and by the Priviledges of the Society may preach though they be not in Orders and are all guided by a Divine Wisdome of greater assurance than the most approved Philosophy and longest Experience And being called by Iesus the Eternal Wisdome of his Father to partake of his care and share in his labours and assisting the world with Paternal affection there is not one among them to whom the Glory of Age is not due none who hath not accomplished his dayes and lived an Age though he dye a youth This concludes not the Iesuites wise but in their own eyes which is the worst of follies but the Author had good reason to tell us that Old Age is rare in the Society not but that many of them live very long but that few attain a maturity in wisdom V. Priviledge They are more prudent and politick than the Ministers of Spain WE read this brave Priviledge in one of the Sermons preached at the beatification of Ignatius translated into French by F. Sollier the Iesuite and printed by him at Poitiers in 1611. under the title of Three Excellent Sermons which he dedicated to Madam Frances de Foix Abbess of Nostre Dame de Xaintes and writ an Apology in defence thereof against the censure of the Sorbonne who had declared several propositions therein to be scandalous erronious manifestly herâ—tical blasphemous and impious The Order is divided into thirty three fâ—ir and large Provinces now above thirty six inhabits three hundred and six Houses and Colledges since increased to above eight hundred and conâ—â—â—ts of above one thousand five hundred and fourscore Brethren of the Order so Prudent in Governmâ—nâ— that there are among their Lay-brothers persons who may read Lessons in the Politiques to the Chancellours of Granada at Valladoldo and instruct the Council of State of our King pag. 172. 'T is no wonder that men who have so good opinion of their Wisdom and Charity for mankind should intermeddle so much in the affairs of Government 'T is a Priviledge they have beyond the Apostles prohibited by Christ to touch that secular Dominion that belongs to Kings and great men of the Earth The Kings of the Gentiles excercise Authority over them but it shall not be so among you But since the Iesuites so willingly undergo the toylsom burden of th' administration of Kingdoms
of the spirit of the Society to believe that Confessors are soveraign masters of the interests of God and havâ— full power to absolve the most enormous offenâ— dors according to their fancy without obliâ—ging them to repentance or requiring anâ— fruits of it But this is in truth a horrible abuse of the power as well as the mercy of Iesus Christ but acted by them to procure themselves Glory from men and to fill their Churches with such Proselytes as being sure of their pardon will never fear to sin When the Society was first established people communicated but once a year and they who communicated twice or thrice passed among some for persons of rare sanctity and among others for men who affected a Name of Devotion and to exalt themselves above other men by a vain shew and ostentation of piety Others pretended that the reverence of the mysteries of that Sacrament kept them from the Eucharist and so covered their disgust and neglect thereof with the Name of respect Thus the frequent use of communion that assured aid of salvation seemed laid by on all sides and which is most hainous principally by them whose duty it was to have commended and pressed its continual use Ibid. This is meant of the Pastors of the Church It is in truth a new kind of piety and new aid of salvation reserved for the Society of the Iesuites not to exclude any from frequent approach to the Eucharist to admit thither the Goats with the Sheep to mingle Sacriledge and Impiety with Holy Actions and to make no difference between the worthy and unworthy as if St. Paul and the Church understood not what they said or were deceived in their Doctrins when they tell us The wicked Communicate tâ— their damnation There was at Valentia a great stir kept against the Society for frequent Communion The Arch-Bishâ—p spoke in their favour and having assembled many Doctors Ordered that all the people should be at Liberty to Communicate every day in the week Ibid. They are not only at Liberty to do it but to be commended for it though they be never so wicked provided they seriously repent and reform their lives The Society then finding the times so contrary and averse to vertue and mens manners universally corrupted was animated the more to endeavour a reformation She hoped that the use of the Sacraments would weaken mens Vices and the vigour of the one become the ruine of the other This engaged her from the beginning to imploy all her strength to enflame the whole earth with the love of these saving aides but with what wonderful success a success great beyond the hopes of the Society What concourse from all parts how the assiduity of the Confessors was over-charged by the multitudes of them that came to Confession insomuch that the continual throng laid siege as it were to several Churches of the Society Crimes are nâ—w expiated with much more alacrity and ardouâ— than they were heretofore committed Nothing is more ordinary now than monthly yea than weekly Confession and many are no sooner stained with sin but they cleanse themselves by confessing their faults The Fathers in answer to the Novatians who reproached the Church for the Authority she took to absolve great offenders as encouraging impenitence told those Hereticks They had been in the right if the Church had promised pardon to sinners without engaging them first to repent But had the practice of the Church been conformable to the Iesuites she had been to seek an Answer to the Objection of the Novatians And St. Augustine assures us That if great sinners could as easily wash off as contract the guilt of their transgressions or if sighs watchings and prayers were not necessary for regaining the favâ—ur of God they would make it their sport to commit the grâ—ssest enormities but now the time is come since these complaisant Directors have taught men that it is as easâ—e to expiate as to commit sin that they scruple not to transgress when it is so easie to gain remission Before the founding of the Sâ—ciety the Curates confessed not their Parishoners but at Easter And if I may be allowed to declare it some of them were more willing to be eased of the labour than to quiet mens consciences and took more care to dispatch than amend the Penitents But now in divers Cities their Successors every Sunday and Holiday are almost opprest with the number of other Penitents as well as men professing Religion in the Orders of the Church Ibid. These Fathers by a lamentable abuse do visibly place the salvation of sinners in the bare outward acts of Confession and Communion which are but acts of Sacriledge without sincere repentance and resolutions of amendment Fryar Ierome a Roman tells us that upon the founding of the Society all Rome was changed in a moment and that then the Ancient Devotion of the Primitive Church in frequenting Confession and the Eucharist began to revive A Burgess of Bolduc sayes the same of that Town there is not a Town upon Earth where the Society hath been established which thinks not the same and openly declares it But since all this change is only superficial and that the Conduct as well as Morality of the Iesuites rather covers and daubes than roots out mâ—ns vices the praise they deserve is that they have filled the world and their Churches with an infinite number of hypocrites which to their other crimes add profanation of Sacraments and a false and vain affectation of piety Before the times of the Society the people scarce knew the name of General Confession though nothing be more ordinary now above ten thousand General Confessions having been made in the Province of Iapan So that 't is credible the whole Society established in thirty six Provinces purifies yearly above a hundred thousand Consciences by these General Confessions How immense is the benefit How worthy their pains by this sole invention to draw yearly out of the slavery of vice and the Devil a hundred thousand Souls and set them at liberty in the state of the Children of God should the Society reckon how many she purifies otherwise yearly how many thousands would be added to the number But were they to be numbred she would esteem them too few and not answerable to the greatness of her zeal for souls Ibid. pag. 374. 'T is true General Confessions were not so frequent heretofore nor the progress of Religion accounted to depend on them but the Priests were imployed to prepare Penitents so well and confirm them so solidly in the hatred of â—in and the love of obedience to the will of God that they were not subject to relapse into former miscarriages and the disorders committed appeared like monsters rarely seen but since these Fathers by acquaintance with these monsters have rendred them ordinary and familiar that their Penitents have so often need of General Confessions 'T is a clear evidence they confess not as they ought but
world and appear only to God which rule ought to be observed as far as possibly it may in publick prayers as we see many Religious Communities pray with the same sedâ—te and composed tranquility of mind in their Quires as they would in their private Chambers and Oratories as being together but one body and one spirit They chaunt so together that thâ—y make but one voice and and hear not one another but when it is necessary to continue the Chaunt and to render their prayers more efficacious by joyning with their brethren in supplication Besides when they Chaunt all their words are intelligible that their thoughts may be imployed and taken up in attending the sense and filled with the affections of David in the composure of the Psalms Thus the Chartreus and other Orders of Religion retaining their primitive purity and simplicity of spirit have nothing in their Churches to scatter and dissipate their thoughts and meditations nothing to ravish their eyes and their eares and to draw away their hearts from minding their devotions to gaze on fine fights and wander in vanities The like may be observed in such of our Cathedrals wherein according to the ancient simplicity as there is nothing wanting that may be necessary for the decent performance of the external worship of God so we find not there such numbers of superfluous Ornaments that serve only to amuse grossie and carnal spirits and earthly dispositions Such simplicity and modesty please not the Iesuites they must have something to quicken the senses and whereas Christ Commands us to offer our Prayers in the most private retirements of our houses from the bottom of our hearts to prevent the distractions of our straying and wanton senses these Fathers invite us to enter their Churches to see and hear thing to ravish our eyes and tickle our ears but to empty our hearts of all affections of devotion and render us incapable to pray with Reverence and Attention In the mean time they glory in their shame and triumph in that which ought to be their confusion they rejoyce in these practises for which they should mourn and prove by experience that men are so wretched that there 's nothing so ridiculous nothing so contemptible but may serve to flatter the vanity of their humours and raise up in their fancies mountains of pride Had we leisure to examine that intire Volume composed by Alegambe of the names of their Authors it would be a fresh instance of their vanity and pride Can any thing be more ridiculous than to amass an infinite number of names of pitifull Books and more pitifull Authors to make the world believe their Society is full of extraordinary men What Glory was it for the company to have produced those innumerable Casuists who have corrupted all Christian Morality and turned topsie turvy the Maxims of the Gospel as Samâ—ies Tambouâ—in Escobar Castro Palao Banny Guimenius c What glory to have produced Divinâ—s who have extolled themselves above the Fathers and their Authority to bring their own profane and ridiculous Novelties in Credit as Molina Poza Garasse c. have done Is it not a shame that they have permitted those scosting Companions those ill-made Spirits of their Fathers Binet Monk and Barry to write Books so intirely ridiculous Are they not struck with prodigious and irrecoverable blindness to boast of those works they have composed against the sacred persons of Kings and of Bishops and to own those mischievous Books which were published under feigned names and deserved censure as soon as they came forth as those of Seribanius Smith and Mariana Lastly What reason have they to insert in the Catalogue of their Works those books they have stollen from others whereof their Father Abbot and others have been often convicted But though this be common among these good Fathers and every dayes practice I will content my self at present with one example by which it will appear they spare not their best friends but are ever ready to do them any injury which may afford them the least hope of Glory 'T is notorious to the world that in the process they maintained against the University of Paris M. De Monthelon whose name is famcus in the Parliament of Paris defended their Cause against M. De la Martiliere and that this later having published his Argument in Print M. De Monthelon published his also There 's no man but thinks it the misfortune so good an Advocate to have undertaken so bad a Cause but the misfortune was greater to have Clients so ingrate as the Iesuites proved to him For is it not strange these Fathers should envy their Advocate the glory of having defended them and attribute the Argument he published to their F. Cotton and should have the boldness to do it in the life-time of M. de Monthelon their Advocates Nephew who can when he pleases convince them of falshood by producing the Original of the Printed Argument all of his deceased Unkles hand-writing That I may not be thought to impose on these Fathers hear the very words of Alegambe the Iesuite in his Bibliotheque of the Writers of their Society pag. 379. col 2. Where speaking of F. Cotton he saith Edidit Apologiam pro Societate contra Martellerum sub nomine Montoloâ—ii He published an Apology for the Society against Martellier under the name of Monthelon Certainly the Pharisees of the Old Law never did the like nor were guilty of a vanity so malignant and Ridiculous Artifices and Violences of the Jesuites of Almaign to take from Religious Orders several considerable Abbyes and Priories Stories on this subject taken out of the Memorial of F. Paul William Vicar Generall of the Order of Cluny Presented to the FRENCH Councell in 1654. Against the Rector of the three Colledges of Jesuites at Selestat Enâ—isheim and Fribourg in Brisgau OF The Three Priories in Alsatia usurped by the Jesuites from the Order of St. Benedict And First Of the Priory of St. Valentine of Ruffach taken away violently by vertue of Bulls against Bulls THe three Priories Conventuals of St. Valentine St. Iames and St. Morand are of ancient foundation between five and six hundred years standing belonging to the Order of St. Benedict and holding of France though all three situate in Alsatia and in the Diocese of Basil. The first stands in the Town of Ruffach parcel of the temporalties of the Bishop of Strasbourg the second in the Village of Veldbach and the third neer the town of Altkirk in the Countrey reunited to France by the Treaty of the peace of Allemaigne The first depends on the Abby of Chesy and the two last on that of Cluny the full right of collating being in the Abbots and preserved without interruption and the Prioryes alwayes possessed by Benedictines of the Nation of France The Priory of St. Valentine was founded about the eleventh Century by two Monks of the Abby of Chesy in the Diocese of Soissons assisted by
neglected and object against theâ— great imperfections and disorders in their manners as grounds for their usurpation and account them Canonical Titles for intruding into the Rights of other men ought to have been confounded for these real enormities which though committed by them they have the impudence to own in the face of the world to the scandal of Christianity You have heard before that upon their entring St. Morand they demolished the Cloyster and caused the materials to be conveyed to St. Vlrich At St. Valentines every one knows that they changed into a hey-house and stable for the Arch-Dukes horses a fair and large Hospital magnificently built and with extraordinary charge by D. Iohn Sancey the Benedictine Prior at the gate of the Monastery for receiving and lodging poor Pilgrims and that they dissipated and imbezelled the Reliques and a quantity of Plate and Ornaments which the Priors had provided by their frugality But the Priory of St. Iames of Veldbach though let them in good condition and at a great undervalue in the Rent fared worst of all and was used with least respect as situate in a village where they held themselves at liberty to act those abuses which in Cities and great Towns they durst not attempt for they not only permitted the Dormitory of the Fryars adjoyning to the Church and the Founders Chappel beside the High Altar to decay and run to ruine but pulled down the Steeple and threw great pieces of timber on the Founders Tombs which were in the middle of the Quire and by this Barbarisme broke all to pieces Thus they demolished part and spoyled the residue of this poor Church that there was not left one ornament for saying Mass of twelve they found there which they carryed into Swizzerland with all the Plate of the Priory And 't is probable they had not spared the rest of the Church from utter destruction but that it was Parochiall which notwithstanding they leâ—t in extreme disorder Of the Priory of Maizere of the Order of St. Benedict changed into a Farm by the Jesuites What you have heard is no more than what their brethren of the Colledge of Porentrâ—t who pretend no less Veneration for sacred places than the rest of the company had given sufficient cause of credit and belief to having three years before ruined the Church of another Priory of the same Order called Maizere formerly famous for Pilgrimage in the Countrey to the great scandal of the Hereticks who carefully maintain and preserve their Churches and to the great regret of the Countrey adjacent who deplored the profanation to see the materials of the House of God imployed to repair the houses Barns and Stables of a Farmer so that there remained no sign of a Priory nor any thing else but a plain Farm Such is the condition to which the Iesuites reduce the benefices they usurp whereof they consider nothing but the revenue beginning alwayes as soon as they enter them to abolish the Divine Service and all those marks which might make it appear they once belonged to the ancient Orders of Religion without any regard to the intention of the Founders nor the Charges they imposed which is the Iesuitical way to promote the glory of God Their taking away Evidences and Registers Another Detriment and injury done by the Iesuites to these three Priories for which the Priories were obliged to seek their remedy in the Great Councel was their taking away the Evidences and Registers concerning the Rights and Revenues of these Monasteries which the Iesuites could make no other use of but to accommodate themselves in case of a re-entry there which nothing but an unjust Ambition could give them any hopes of or to deprive the right owners of the enjoyment of them to which nothing but an extreme malignity could incline them or lastly to conceal and suppress some debts to which their Goods might be lyable which though it denotes a malicious avarice yet is not strange in the Jâ—suites practice For the Iesuites of the Colledges of Novices at Nancy have 40 years since used the like practice against the Friars of Senon of the Order of St. Benedict in Lorrain when the Abbot of St. Vanne of Verdun having given them the Lordship of Barbonville being a dependant on his Abby charged with the ancient rent of 22 quarters of Corn to the Abby of Senon they craftily embezled all the Evidences thâ—y could light on that made mention of that duty And when the Fryars of Senon sent to demand the Rent as accustomed the Iesuites who thought all the Evidences that concerned that duty were safe in their hands pretended ignorance and refused payment telling the demanders thâ—y thought nothing due A suit was thereupon commenced in the Councell of Lorrain and the Fryars for want of their Evidences to make out their title were cast But some years after the reformation of the said Abby the reformed Fryars made so diligent search that they found three Registers wherein the said duty was charged in pursuance whereof they brought a new Action which the Iesuites stifly defended but the Registers being produced they submitted to pay what they could no longer dispute The Iesuites proceeding in three several Tribunals and three Distinct Countreyes at the same time for the same Priories and other petty foggeries We have cause to believe that on the same dâ—sign the Rectors of the three Colledges of Selestat Enssheim and Fribourg carryed away the Deeds and Evidences of the three Priories above-mentioned And when the Priors of the Benedictines sought restitution by Law it is incredible how many artifices and petty foggeryes they used to detain them To give an instance when they saw themselves pressed by the Benedictines to restore them they procured a prohibition from the Privy councel to prevent proceedings in the inferiour Courts interdicting the ordinary Judges the cognizance of the Cause The Councell being thus intirely possessed of the Cause at the instance of the Iesuites the Prince of Conty and the Abbot of Nesmond interposed in behalf of the Benedictines the former as Generall of the Order of Cluny the later as Abbot of Chesy and Collators of the Priories The Iesuites hereupon fearing their success in the Councel while the matter depended there prosecuted the Benedictine Priors at the same time both at Rome and Brisach and obtained of the Auditor Generall at Brisach whom we spake of before a sequestration of the Priories of St. Iames and St. Morand without any form of Justice and without hearing or summoning the Defendants And at Rome they procured a Monition to cite the Benedictines thither with an Excommunication against all that should oppose the execution of their Bull which they durst never produce And caused the Monition to be printed throughout And the Benedictines of St. Morand to be cited by the Bishop of Basle for which as an injury and abuse the Fryars were forced to make an Appeal In pursuance of this they used all the
offer to abandon the said house And in the Suit by conversion of Appeal into opposition that the Seizures made at the Defendants request be declared null injurious and wrongful and an Ousterlemain granted thereon with costs damages and interest DE CLOS for the parties intervenant being the Fathers Mothers and next Kin of the Nuns said It may not be thought strange these parties intervene in the cause as being of no less concern than the destruction of a Monastery and tending to the famishing of their Children the Nuns That the Defendant or F. Fâ—rrest his Predecessor in the Office having by a fraududent Contract surprized the Nuns of St. Vrsula of Mascon had the dexterity to conceal this Contract ten or twelve years till he had apprehension of the letters of Rescision that to secure his debt by sufficient morgages of the Dowers which from time to time should be brought by new Nuns into this Monastery having published abroad that this house had been given the eight Nuns come from Mascon to establish the Monastery for their Dowries he proceeded at last to the Seizure of all the Revenues of these Nuns and had caused the Rents and Pensions of the Nuns and Pensioners to be seized to draw from them the payment of the sum of twelve thousand Livres pretended residue of the price of the house in question and nine years arrerages That this unexpected rigour reduced the Nuns to the necessity of begging contrary to the rules of their Order and the tenour of the permission of their establishment at Metz or falling again into the hands of their kindred That the Dowries of Nuns were sacred and not subject to Commerce That the Church tollerated no other use of them than only for the Alimony of Nuns That they could not be diverted to the payment of debts much less of debts lyable to question secret and fraudulent as this yet it appeared that by the Contract of Sale of the said house F. Forget had the boldness to stipulate a particular morgage to secure his debt upon the Nuns Dowries who should make profession in this Monastery and so the Dowries of these Nuns should be aliened along time before their profession which cannot be judged to be other than Simony that the monies of these Dowries having been stipulated for Alimony could not be seized for the Defendants debt That the new Nuns who alone made up the Monastery had never signed any of the Contracts made use of by the defendant against them which were alwayes kept secret so that they were at their full liberty to accept them or not That the Nuns of Mascon had been so grosly surprized in this that they were excessively damnified That these parties had a notable interest and were concerned to take care that their Daughters the Nuns should not long continue in an unhealthy and infected place therefore he concluded That having regard to their intervention it would please the Court to grant the Appellants and Demandants their Fines and Cenclusions LE FEVRE for the Rector of the Iesuites said That he could not admit the Appâ—llants to be parties that they were not qualified to sue that being Nuns profest of the Monastery of St. Vrsula of Metz aforesaid they were incapable to proceed at Law without their Superiour the particulars which compose the body having no power without their head That all the Convent ought to have been parties or audience denied to the particular Nuns whose proceeding was so unjust that they were forsaken by their Superiour that though the Contract had been past by the Vrsulines of Mascon who were not profest of the Monastery of Metz it was good notwithstanding for that it was passed for and to the profit of the Monastery to be established at Metz That new establishments were made no other way that if such Contracts should not oblige houses newly estabished and the Nuns that should make profession there the Sellers should be alwayes cheated that they should give away their estates without any assurance to receive the price for them That the Committy of the Monastery of Metz begun on the day when the first Nuns sent from Mascon were encloystered and continued and was increased by the profession of such as were newly received that though the Nuns newly profest were not named in the Contract nor had ratified it yet they were obliged by it as the new Monks of a Monastery are bound to pay the debts of their predecessors in the same house That the Dowers of the new Nuns coming by acquisition to the Convent were from thenceforth subject to the discharge of priviledged debts as the price of the said house which was their habitation and part of their Alimony That the juniority they alledged could stand them in no stead because the purchase was made with all formalities requisite and by the Authority and Counsel of their Superiours who had contracted and therefore the Contract must stand otherwise no person will Contract for like establishments nor with Nuns That the desire of an object came as well by the ears as the eyes so that it was not necessary the buyer should see the thing he would buy but it sufficed if he knew its condition and value by the report of another That there had not been any deceit fraud surprize or trapan on F. Forgets part who in his Important Avisoes delivered nothing but what was true concerning the description of this house That the platforms and models of that house which he gave them were true if the places were measured by the foot of Metz according to the custom of the Countrey where they were drawn That the Nuns had the liberty to cause it to be viewed before they took possession that they had perused it six weeks ratified the Contract and declared it agreeable to the model received of F. Forget in the City of Mascon and that they had found it fair and more convenient for regularity and the functions of their institution than they conceived or imagined at the time of the purchase that if F. Forget had been their Director Spiritual and Temporal it was an extraordinary favour received of him who deserved other acknowledgements than those they made and that for this reason they could not annul the ratification for otherwise they who intermedled with their direction and should take care of their temporalities and affairs could make no Contract with them that the intervention of their Parents and Kindred was precarious and useless Therefore he concluded that without regard to their Letters of Rescision and restitution or to their opposition the Appâ—llants and Opposants should lose the benefit thereof and pay costs to the Defendant Ioly was heard for the Kings Atturny Generall and said That the business depending was of great importance as well in respect of the parties contesting as the Grounds of the Suit That the Court was possessed of the Cause by an Appeal put in by the new profess'd Vrsulines of Metz for seisures made
either part went to advise with F. Marmol the Iesuite then Divinity-professor at Granada and afterwards Rector of the Colledge of St. Hermenigilde at Sevil in whose time and by whose Council they made that memorable Banquerupt The Answers this Father gave weâ—e suited to the desires of those who consulted him whether to grant or refuse the Contribution equally telling the one and the other that it would be a mortal sin for the one to grant and the others to refuse it Those who were for granting it demanded of Father Marmolâ— his Opinion in writing to shew it to the Assembly that the Concession was Just which the Iesuite fraudly gave them and signed it Those who were against the Kings demand seeing F. Marmol so strongly of their Opinion demanded also his sentiment under his hand to lâ—t the Assembly see they had advised with him to purpose But he made them answer it was not the custome of the Society to sign Advices that were not pleasing to Kings and Princes This I know by the relation of one of them who consulted him The Jesuites driven out of Malta for their insatiable Avarice and an abominable Crime P. 250. 'T is certain that 't is not ordinary to expell whole Communities for the fault of one particular and that persons of wisdome and judgement as those who govern Kingdoms and Republicks punish not a whole Order of Religion for the miscarriage of one Fryar This may assure us that the Iesuites having been driven away from several parts it was not for the fault of some particular person but for that of the whole body and the chiefs who govern it In 1643 or 1644. they were expelled Malta on this occasion They entred this Island with intention to make themselves Masters of the whole Order of St. Iohn Resident there To gain credit with the Knights they thought it their duty to charge themselves with the instruction and education of the young Knights brought up there The Grand Master of the Order gave them a House and Revenue sufficient to entertain them with honour The Isle of Malta is of a rocky soyle and barren throughout insomuch that an inhabitant of the City cannot have a Garden without fetching earth from Sicily in the Gallies All the victuals they have comes by Sea and Corn whereof the Merchants make commonly great gains is very dear there The Iesuites carried by their natutural inclination to traffick entred into this Commerce to the great prejudice of the Island they caused a great quantity of Corn to be imported from Sicily which they locked up till they saw the people threatned with Famine and in very great want intending to sell it then at excessive rates The Isle was in time sore pressed with Famine and little corn remaining in the Publick Granaries or in those of private men the Gallies of Biserte and other Vessels of Turkey blocked up their harbours were Lords of the Sea and took all the Merchants Vessels that sayled so that there was no hope of relief from Sicily The Iesuites seeing this extremity were careful noâ— to declare that they had in their Granary about five thousand bushels of Corn to be sold fearing that if the Grand Master came to know it he would oblige them to part with it at cheap rates without any profit This made them think it fitter for their purpose to dissemble and make themselves of the number of those who were in want They went to the Great Master and told him they were in extream necessity and had passed the day before without a bit of bread having none of their own nor knowing where to buy any The Grand Master who pittied and loved them ordered some bushels to be given them of that little quantity of Corâ— that remained Some of the most considerable Knights would have stopped his Liberality and prevented the Gift telling him they were informed by persons who knew it very well that the Iesuites had Corn sufficient to nourish the whole Island for several months but the Grand Master regarded them not but believed it the discourse of passionate persons ill affected to the Iesuites There happened at the same time a thing which the Author describes at large but so horrible in all its circumstances that I thought fit to pass it over in silence and content my self with saying that it was a crime so abominable that it provoked all the Kâ—ights to punish F. Cassiaita the Iesuite who was Author of it in a manner proportioned to his fault and afterwards clap'd him on board a Feluca with all his Companions and sent them for Sicily The Colledge was presently searched and a Granary found conâ—aining Corn sufficient to maintain the whole City a long time The Graâ—d Master having heard the disorder committed by the Knights in a place he looked upon as a Sanctuary came to the remedy when it was too late they shewed him Granaries full of wheat and disabused him in letting him see the truth of what they had affirmed awhile before He approved of what they had done and made use of the Corn they found to relieve the present necessity I will not at present insist on the story of Cassiaita but observe that the avarice of the Iesuites was the cause of their expulsion for they kept their Corn when the people were in want and had no compassion for the publick necessity but preferred their interâ—st bâ—fore the good of the Island The Book of Parsons the Jesuite to make himself Master of all the Ecclesiastical Estates of England P. 242. Parsons the Iesuite published heretofore in England a Book Intituled The Reformation of England wherein having observed several faults and defects in the Councel of Trent he concludes with this saying that if England ever returned to the Romish Religion it must be reduced to the form of the Primitive Church by putting all Ecclesiastical Estates in â—ommon and that the care of that Church â—ust be given to seven discreâ—t persons of the Society to distribute the said Estates as they shall think fit And for a mark of the Iesuites blinded self-love he sayes that no Fryar of of any other order must be permitted to pass into England and adds that for five years at least the Pope must not present to any benefice but refer himself wholly in that particular to those seven Sages of the Company Thus they make nothing of ruining the Church provided it may conduce to make them Masters of all The Jesuites in preaching the Gospel at Japan soâ—â— Seditions and dispose the people to War and are persecuted and chased away as Cheats and Impostors Pag. 310. Their cares are confined to their interesses and to promote them they raise troubles and Warr as Father Diego Collado the Dominiâ—an hath well observed in a Memorial he presented to the Councell Royall of the Indies Decemb. 17. 1633. where in the third Paragraph he hath these expressions The Iapanois were perswaded ever since 1565. that where-ever the Preachers of the
Gospel should come they would ruine all by Warres and Seditions But we are to take notice that to that time and afterwards till 1593. they saw no other Preachers but Iesuites This Fryar speaks not this of himself but hath taken the words out of the General History of Iapan printed at Alcala in 1601. which the Author Lewys Gusman the Iesuite sayes He had gathered out of Relations of certain truth or ocular testimonies The same Author Cap. 3. Lib. 2. reports the persecution raised against them by the Emperour of Iapan and the cause alledged by the Emperour to have been that the Iesuites were Cheats and Impostures who made pretence of preaching salvation came to raise the people and plot some treason against him and the Kings of Iapan and that had he not taken heed of them they had long since deceived him as they had done many other Kings and Princes so that in six years they had discovered the end they had in preaching the Gospel and made it appear to have been the destruction of Princes It cannot be said the Emperour did this out of hatred to the Christan Faith who gave permission in writing in 1593. to the Order of St. Francis to enter his Empire to found there Churches Hospitals and Convents and appear publickly in their poor habit All which notwithstanding the persecution continued against the Society who had but one Church left at Nangazaqui a Port town and a place of great Commerce This Church the Emperour permitted to stand because of some Iesuites Inhabitants there who took care of merchandizes one of whom named Iohn Roderick was the Emperours Interpreter This shews how fâ—r the Iesuites were engaged in trade that some of them were necessary to be left to uphold it when the rest were expelled and that they were not chased away for their Faith since the the Order of St. Francis who laboured more effectually the Conversion of Infidels were admitted the same time but for the horror and detestation of the Iapanois conceived against them for their double dealing and falsehood The Avarice and Ambition of the Jesuites cause the destruction of two Christian Kings of Japan Their Treason against the King of Omura makes the Ministers of the Gospel to be accounted Traytâ—rs P. 311. I could not in silence pass by two cruel Treasons which the Ambition of the Iesuites produced in these Countries by policies most repugnant to the maximes of Christianity The King of Omura received the Christian Faith with very great devotion and for that reason and because he reputed the Iesuites Ministers of the Gospel favoured and protected them in his Realm Nangazaqui is one of thâ— principal Cities there and capable to enrich all the Countrey being a Port well frequented as we hinted before The Iesuites thought to draw more advantages to themselvâ—s from another person whom they designed to make Master of a Port so considerable though not without the brâ—ach of all the Laws of Fidelity due to a Catholick King their friend They went to the Emperour and represented to him the conveniencies of the Port the various Merchandizes brought thither the commodiousness of its situation for security of his Vessels and at last assured him that as a Soveraign Lord he might take it away from the King of Omura giving him something else equivalent to it The Emperour followed their advice and took away the Port from the King of Omura but as soon as he had done it he banished the Iesuites from all parts of that Kingdom saying with much wisdom That having betrayed their Benefactor they would with more reason betray him the Emperour who had far less obliged them than the King of Omura Thus they lost the amity of the King and gained not that of the Emperour they affected but left the Ministers of the Gospel the reputation of being Traytors This hath been assured upon the oaths of above fifty Christian villages in a Memorial presented originally to his Catholick Majesty in his Councel of the Indies and to the Pope in the Congregation de Propaganda â—ide A Mischievous Counsel given the King of Arima which cost him his life and â—aused a bloody persecution against the Christians P. 312. There happened another thing equally strange to the King of Arima a Christian and great Benefactor to the Iesuites whose Seminaries and Colledges flourished in his Realm They put a chimera into the head of this Prince and perswaded him to demand of the Emperour the restitution of some Lands which his Predecessors had lost by war The Iâ—suites design in this was to enlarge their Power by extending the Dominions of the King of Arima their friend beyond the ordinary limits to attain their desires they made use of a man who was intirely at their devotion his name Dayfaqui a Secretary to one of the Emperours Ministers but though they gained him to their side he forbore not to discover the whole intrigue which cost the lives of the one and the other for the Emperour caused the King to be beheaded and Dayfaqui burnt and Morejon the Iesuite escaped but narrowly the same flames This King is charged with the killing of a Son he had by a former wife to make way for the succession of one by a second wife as a person from whom the Iesuites hoped more favour in his Reign than they could expect from the other The Emperour hereupon conceived a very ill opinion of our Religion and its Ministers for that all who acted in this Tragedy were Fryars or Christians and this moved him to the second persecution which was much more bloody than the former He chased away all Fryars from his Empire so that the Conversion of this people was extreamly obstructed by the ill Counsels and Flatteries of the Iesuites Is not the Ambition of the Iesuites very strange and their flattery a horrible thing who to extend their Dominion and please the King of Arima though they were setled in very good condition proposed to him the design of re-entring these Lands his Predecessors had possessed though then in the hands of another Master In a Contribution made by all the Religious Orders of Spain the Jesuites give three advices instead of money P. 392. The King of Spain wanting monies at the beginning of the War with France demanded of all the Orders of Religion a succour by way of Contribution The Collector applyed themselves presently to the Iesuites not doubting but they who were Labourers Burgers Usurers Bankers Merchants Mint-men Exchangers Victuallers Intelligencers Emissaries into China Legatees and executors of Testaments throughout the world would on this occasion make appear to the world their affection for the publick good and their Power and would give the King a considerable sum to help him out of the great straits he was in The Fathers answered them who made the proposal that when they had demanded the Contributions of other Religious Orders the Sâ—cieâ—y would give as much as they who gave most yea
God The Jesuites stirr not abroad by night for the Poor but do it for the Rich A merry prank play'd them by the Governour of Evora in his particular P. 394. What passed at Evora is very pleasant A Governour of that City some years before the revolt of Portugal knew the Iesuites well and that they run upon wheels when their interest calls them but have Lead in their heels when there 's nothing to be got though the business concern the good of their neighbour and the service of God He was informed that a poor man being sick to death they went at midnight to the Iesuites Colledge because this man lodged neer them to desire one of them to come and confess him The Porter answered that the Fathers never stirred out of the Colledge by night and so the poor man dyed without being confessed The Governour took this occasion to make others know the Iesuites as well as he knew them and to undeceive such as had a good opinion of them he sent his servant one night to desire a Confessor from the Iesuites for a woman that lay a dying but instructed him well and forbad him to tell whence he came The servant went to the Colledge and having called and knocked a long time the Porter came to the Gate cursing him to the Devil that knocked but took the Message and went to deliver it to the F. Rector The servant waited for an Answer which after a long attendance was brought him to this purpose that the F. Rector advised him to go seek out the Curat of the Parish for that they of this holy House stirred not abroad by night Some dayes after the Governour sent them a message from him that after supper he had been suddenly taken with an Apoplexy whose consequence might be dangerous and to prevent the ill that might otherwise ensue he desired that he might have a Iesuite to confess him As soon as the servant had delivered his message two Iesuites came forth warmly clad for it was Winter and went beside the Governours house who attended them by the way with the Officers of Justice When he saw them he asked who they were and whither they went They answered they were Iesuites and went to confess the Governour who lay a dying This is all false replyes he for I am the Governour and very well in health and you are not Iesuites but Robbers and so sent them to prison where they continued all night The Rector having heard of this Accident in the Morning went in search of those of his Order found them in prison and complained to the Archbishop who proceeded against the Governour But the Governour would not let them goe till they had made an Authentique information and proved by the depositions of several witnesses that they were men of a Religious Order and that they were acknowledged and commonly reputed such This took up a dayes time and the Rector and other Iesuites bestirred themselves to purpose and would have given money to clear themselves of the mischance and thought themselves kindly used that the Governour insisted on no more satisfaction for delivery of the Prisoners The Governour excused himself for what past because he knew on one side that the Iesuites stirred not abroad by night no not to confess persons that lay a dying and that on the other side finding at midnight two persons in the streets in Iesuites habit it gave him just cause to suspect that they were Robbers who made use of that disguise This story was told me by a Lay-brother a Iesuite named Pantaleon d' Almeyda who was at Granada not many years since whom his Superiors have since sent into New Spain The corrupt Manners of their Schollars and Priests in three Great Provinces How they keep their Vow of Obedience to the Pope and endeavour to cheat Princes P. 410. The Iesuites make a particular vow of obedience to the Holy See though sufficiently obliged without it and as if all Catholiques were not of their opinion in the point but 't is easie to discover by what follows how ill they perform it 'T is known these Fathers take on themselves the instruction of youth in all parts of the world to infuse into them the Principles of Learning and Good manners They managed it so well in the Provinces of Stiria Carinthia and Carniola that the Ecclesiasticks who had studyed under them led so infamous lives and gave such ill examples that Pope Paul 5. held himself obliged by the duty of his Office to take order for their reformation For this purpose in 1619. he appointed the Bishop of Serzane his Nuntio in the Empire to be Visitor that he might correct and punish the debauchery of their manners so dishonourable to the Church The Iesuites who loved these wretched Priests and Students as their true disciples to discharge their vow of obedience to the Holy See left no stone unturned to hinder the Visitation But seeing the Nuntio far advanced in the chastisement and reformation of these corrupt Church-men they found a rare expedient to hinder the effect of the punishments given them and to procure them impunity in their loose courses of life F. Bartholomeâ— Villers a Iesuite was then Confessor to the Archduke and had the priviledge to give his advice first in all sorts of Affairs He represented to this Prince that the Popes design in this Visitation was to know and procure a Memoire of all the forces and fortifications of all his Estate for some purposes unknown but such as there was just cause to suspect That the Nuntio being an Italian would take with him some persons of the same Nation to assist in the Visitation that it was not fit to give strangers liberty to enter the State to penetrate its secrets and reduce them into Memoirs Had this Prince been less pious he had not needed greater motives to cross the good intentions of the Pope But having discovered these of the Iesuites and the weakness of their reasons he seconded the designs of the Pope and the Visitation was held throughout these three Great Provinces wherein there were found only fix Priests who used not Concubines and were otherwise guilty of scandalous living What shall we now say of the Iesuites who would have perswaded this Prince to hinder the execution of the Ordinances of the Pope And is not this a good obedience to the Soveraign Pontife I have often heard it said The Robber and Receiver merit the same punishment Another Author who relates this story sayes that these debauched Priests had not only studied under the Iesuites but made it their custom to give the Fathers several Presents and that this engaged these Masters to favour their Schollers and take them into protection though publick and scandalous sinners Plerique enim provinciarum illarum Sacerdotes ex Iesuitarum scholis profecti munusculd illis frequenter missitabant adeoque duplici nomine quamvis palam essent improbi Magistrorum patrâ—cinium gratiamque
sing was true of him for he preached three hours by the clock and notwithstanding all the diligence used and signs made to stop his impertinent pratling nothing could stay the course of his â—opperies for three hours together The subject of his Sermon was that of his folly That St. Francis Xavier had sent him to preach at Iapan and in the familiar discourses often held with him had given him that order To authorize what he said he took to witness the holy images the walls and pillars of that Church and to perswade his Auditors to believe the certainty of his Revelations and ravishments he told them that if they of the City opposed his passage from the territories they could not hinder it for he would make use of his mantle for a bark his staff for a mast and would so pass over with more security than in a vessel well equipped These and other expressions in his Sermon gave the people much trouble because if all things fell out as he said it would break the Commerce between Portugal and Iapan to the ruine of the people All the Ecclesiasticks and learned persons assembled together to consider what might have inclined the Iesuite to talk at that rate and what remedy to apply The most judicious were of opinion that he was a fool but that at that time he practised dissimulation more than solly which opinion had sufficient grounds for that it was propable he hid under these appearances of dotage the design he had to favour the interest of the Hollanders who made use of him as an instrument proper to ruine the City When Cyprian knew what past in this assembly by the information of those coâ—fidents of the Iesuites whom fear or interest ingages to give them advice of all that is transacted this impostor writ in a paper all that past in the Assembly and put it into the hand of a statue of St. Francis Xavier which stood in the Cell of the Visitor Manuel Diaz the Jesuite One of the Assembly came to see the Visitor and Cyprian having notice of it went to his Chamber and having whispered him in the ear in the presence of the Secular person who came to the Visitor went his way When he was gone the Visitor forthwith sayes to the townsman SIR Know you what F. Cyprian saish See what that paper is in the hand of St. Francis Xavier The townsman took the paper wherein he found the names of all who had been in the Assembly written with F. Cyprians hand and that within two months they should all dye for having given so disadvantageous a judgement of the Iesuite The Visitor with great exclamations conjures the townsman to publish the paper that they who were to die might prepare themselves for it â— but the event was quite contrary for some of those men who were before Crazy had their health very well for these two months and a long time after Perhaps because their distemper forbore to afflict them out of respect to F. Cyprian who peradventure had given them some of his reliques as his gray hairs his old shirts or other like things which he distributed very liberally The common people had a great esteem of him and would have torn in pieces his robe to serve them for reliques but it was new and of very fine cloth which made F. Cyprian willing to preserve it telling the people that the habit he wore abroad was not a relique considerable enough but if they came to his lodging he would give them excellent new cloth of his old torn shirts A Pagan Indian trimmed him for nothing which Cyprian said was an action sufficient to convert him but the truth is he made great gains every time that he shaved him by selling every hair of his beard for a relique and when Cyprian knew it he said The man must be allowed to advance devâ—tion They were at last confirmed in the opinion they had of him as being a spy or what fell out afterwards A Iesuite simple and devout for such also there uses to be among them and to F. Iohn Baptist Morales and told him in private Within two months the Emperour of Japan shall send in search of us and twelve of the Colledge whereof I will be one will go where required and the first five years we shall suffer three sorts of punishments the Sword the Fire and the Cross and we have seen great miracles done by F. Cyprian in confirmation of this truth There past not only two months but two years and a thousand may pass before any come in search of them or they go to Iapan It is true nevertheless that F. Cyprian had taken his measures to go to Iapan within two months and had for that purpose sent two Iesuites into a Dâ—sart Island to build a vessel for his passage the City was advertised of it and sent to destroy it But F. Cyprian warned them who had commission to do it not to put it in execution foretelling them that there would fall fire from heaven on them who would adventure to touch it He said truth in some measure but not altogether for fire there was but not from heaven and that burnt not men but men burnt the barque By this they discovered his design and gave account to the inquisition of his Revelations his Prophecies and Impostures he made use of for cheating the world and the inquisitors having found the truth of the information ordered he should be sent back to the Indies and charged Anthony Cardin the Iesuite to bring him thither but as one who had sucked the same milk and learnt the same doctrine he permitted him to flee among the Moores where he ended his life with as much sanctity as he began and led it to that time And I doubt not but Poza the Iesuite hath put him in his Martyrology They seek in the Indies the means to enrich themselves not the salvation of souls And dishonour Religion by their Concubinages and impostures P. 407. The story of what past among the Indians Chiriguanaes is worth the reporting I heard it sayes the Author at Madrid of a person of honour a Friend and Correspondent of D. Iohn D' Elizarazo his Majesties Commissioner in the City of Platâ— in Peru. The Indians Chiriguanaes live beyond the Mountains of Peru and are a Nation very docil and susceptible of the doctrine of the Gospel but Enemies to those labours and pains the Indians now suffer The Iesuites undertook their Conversion and in a short time laboured to good effect these Infidels receiving the Gospel with very great devotion when the Fathers saw them almost all Converted and Baptized and that they were dexterous and tractable they resolved to propose to them the end of their preaching which was not as it appeared the Conversion of the souls of these Infidels but to make advantage by their estates They told them that being their preachers they desired to live amongst them but wanted lands and