a Priest and Clerk of the Society of Jesus makes himself a Judge of life and death upon me in his book pronounces and signes the sentence of death against me and racks his wit to find out new torments to make my departure hence the more cruel and insupportable His accusation is that I have celebrated their Masse after I had engaged my self in the design of my Conversion and did not forbear preaching in their pulpits even while I was in treaty with the Reverend the Ministers of the reformation to find out some safe course to make a publick profession of the Faith which I had already embraced in my heart This enrages and exasperates the man so farre that he turns a prodigall and spends on me without the least regret all the injurious figures and all the scandalous termes which his imagination can furnish him with In every page he finds out some new clawes to fasten on me withall I am in his judgement a Judas among the Apostles and a Deâ—il in the house of God The words execrable detestable abominable are too gentle to make any deep wounds nay he employes the malice of his wit and makes all his Rhetorick sweat again to find out such as are more stinging and more venemous Not thinking iâ— enough to thrust in one or two into every period he musters up thirteen or fourteen altogether aâ— when he sayes page 25. This man was vaine proud envious refractory hypocriticall sacrilegious perfidious desperate a prevaricator an impostor carnal treacherous worldly-minded c. In a word he does as much as lies in his power to make me the object of an universall persecution and it shall not be his fault if the particular animosity of the Jesuits passe not through all the Christian world for the publick cause I am not to learn that the Law of Grace under which we now live does not require an eye for an eye nor a hand for a hand as that did which God had given from amongst the thunder and lightning Nor am I ignorant on the other side that the Christian Lenity whereof you make so great profession and that mildnesse and modesty which distinguishes you to be true Pastors different from those wolves and hirelings may haply oblige you to disapprove these refutations as such as betray too much gall and Satyre But I shall entreat your Reverences to give me leave without prejudice to the Law of Jesus to do in my own defence that which nature teaches the very creatures God forbids not and reason allowes in the prudent I do not desire the death of Beaufes as the reward of the crimes he hath committed though he wishes nothing so much as mine and that for no other reason then that I have done a good work no I heartily forgive him and blesse the wounds whereby he endeavours to assassinate me But since necessity hath forced me to take up arms for my owne just defence it cannot be expected I should answer so exactly as that I should return flowers and complements for calumnies and invectives If therefore when I oppose my buckler to the stones he casts at me their recoyling hurts them in the tenderest places the mischief caused thereby is to be attributed to his insolent and inconsiderable attempt since that God neither forbids nor hinders the effects proceeding from a rationall resistance I should have answered him in terms sufficiently civil and obliging had my calumniator any way deserv'd an honourable treatment but civility exasperates him and mildnesse irritates him he is much of a nature with the cantharides converts into poyson the juice of the fairest flowers and experience hath convinced all the faithfull at Rochel that he grows so much the more insolent against the truth by how much the Pastors endure his extravagances with the greater modesty I therefore humbly beseech your Reverences not to take it amisse if being to refute a furious and inconsiderate man I do not confine my self to a scrupulous reservednesse an over-ceremonious observance and respect would prejudice the purity of my cause and might raise difficulties among the simple I ought not nor indeed can without great danger flatter an enraged mastiffe whose teeth where-ever they fasten are venemous If I discover many passages of his life as occasion serves whereat he may be troubled I assure you that the worst I shall do will be simply not to flatter him I could never approve that irrationall custome of the Persians to whip their Soveraigne's robe when he had offended without touching his person no it is but just every one should beare with the penalty inflicted on him for his crimes and detractors ought to endure the truth when it is told them Were I cited to a higher tribunall then yours it would certainly be lawfull for me to do what the holy Spirit allows by the mouth of David Be angry but sin not and to follow the advice of the Wise man Answer a fool according to his folly But if notwithstanding all I have said my discourse seem too sharp to you be pleased to remember that I have lived too long among the Jesuits and too short a time among you to be dismantled of those passions which are garrison'd and fortifie themselves in persons of that Society I therefore most humbly make it my suit to you that you would without prejudice read my Apology and that with a spirit of love towards a person who dedicates it to your Reverences with the greatest submission imaginable And you will find that I signe an eternall bill of divorce from them and that since I have discover'd such truths to the world I am oblig'd out of a consideration of my own safety ever to look on them as the implacable seekers of my life This demonstration of the sincerity of my conversion and the obligation there is of my perseverance shal be a certain earnest-piece of my reall and hearty embracing of our Religion as also of the respects I owe you as being REVEREND SIRS Your most humble and most obedient Servant Peter Jarrigius AN ANSWER TO THE CALUMNIES OF JAMES BEAVFES A JESUIT CHAP. I. Shewing the reason of my writing after the excellent Refutation publish'd on my behalf by Monsieur Vincent IT was ever accounted justifiable that an innocent person should vindicate his reputation against calumnies But if it happen that he sayes not a word in order to his own justification and that God out of his infinite mercy raise up some Daniel that undertakes to plead his cause confound his adversaries and discover the inconsistency of their testimonies by the manifest contradictions they fall into it raises in the people an admiration at the judgements of God who never forsakes those that suffer persecution upon the account of vertue and takes a certaine pleasure to see injustice and detraction overthrown at the feet of Innocence A broad and troublesome sea of three hundred Leagues which lyes between me and the Inhabitants of Rochell suffers me
and excellent parts are known to all the world When some of the lesser stars tread amisse and appear not in their ordinary places it is not perceiv'd by any unlesse it be by some cuâ—ious Mathematician but when the Sun suffers an Eclipse the people of the foure parts of the universe turn their eyes towards his globe I do not here entertain the world with the crimes of those among them whom they contemptibly call formall Coadjutors or if I have produced any they are very few in comparison of the others but I bring upon the stage the Ring-leaders of the Society guilty of the most enormous offences If the denomination of a compositum ought to be taken from the better and the nobler part let all the world judge whether that Society instead of being called â—he Society of JESUS should not be more justly â—alled the Society of MALEFACTORS REFLECTION V. and last When a man hath read and diligently examin'd what 〈◊〉 contain'd in this little book I am confident there will be no necessity of my putting him in mind that the â—esuits themselves forc'd me to this â—iscovery and that â—t very much concern'd in point of honour to endeaâ—our my disparagement as much as might be as well â—y indictment as by books in case they rationally preâ—um'd that I should not alwayes be silent and that if I â—onceal'd their crimes for some time after my coming â—rom among them so to avoid all medling with them â—nd to shun the first sallies of their exasperation yet at â—ast I should upon the perswasion of the Reverend Ministers of our Church discover them But God knowes how far they have been mistaken in their conâ—ecture and how that they have put the sword into my hand to defend my self and wherewith I have wounded them in their heart and in the apple of their eye that is in their reputation I conclude making a solemne protestation of two things the first that I have not said any thing but the naked truth The second that had they not betray'd such an implacable violence against me I should have resolved to be silent though it had been out of no other consideration then that of avoiding that shame among my Brethren which I must needs conceive at my having lived so long in an Order guilty of such horrid crimes THE END Psal XVII PReserve me Lord from hurtfull things As th' apple of thine eye And under covert of thy wings Defend me secretly From wicked men that tyrannize Let thy hand help me out And from my deadly enemies That compasse me about In their own fat they are inclos'd And bear themselves so high That with their mouth they are dispos'd To speak presumptuously They have encompassed us round In our own footsteps now And down unto the very ground They beuo their lowring brow Like th' eager Lyon that doth long To take his prey in chace And as it were a Lyon young That lurks in secret place Arise and disappoint him then And cast him down O Lord Defend my Soul from wicked men Which are thy cutting sword From worldly men thy help I crave From men which are thy hand Which in this life their portion have And do not see beyond THE CALUMNIES OF JAMES BEAVFES REFUTED By the same Author PSALME LIV. To the Reverend THE PASTORS AND ANCIENTS Of the FRENCH Reformed Churches gathered together in the united Provinces of the Low-Countries REVEREND SIRS IT is certainly an obligation of divine Providence and a favour which all my services cannot come into the least degree of deserving that it hath been pleased to permit the Persecutors of our Churches and the enemies of the Faith we professe to set upon both by indictment and by printed books the Declaration I had made with all the syncerity of my heart The seed which is sown must endure the nipping frosts and the injuries of the aire before the grain can come to maturity Roses are not gathered without some danger of the prickles they are invironed with Lillies do many times grow among herbs of evil scent It shall ever be honourable to me to suffer upon the account of vertue even flames The Lord of glory was nailed to the crosse between two thieves The servant is not greater then his Master nor the Ambassadour more considerable then he that sent him as it was necessary that Jesus Christ should suffer and so enter into his Kingdome so is it but just that through many tribulations I also should enter into the Kingdome of Heaven These words of the great Apostle I hear perpetually ringing in my ears if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him and when all is rightly summed up together it will be found that the sufferings of the present time amount to nothing in comparison of the glory that is to be revealed in us I had before some resentments of the powerfulnesse of celestiall Grace in my happy conversion but now I am to acknowledge the finger of God and the operation of his divine spirit in my persecutions That which makes my soul as it were overflow with serenity and satisfaction and fixes it in a firme and immoveable confidence is that the eternall God who hath begun his work in me will also bring it to perfection to his greater glory and that you Reverend Sirs who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world will afford me so much the greater demonstrations of your affection and tendernesse the more you find me haâ—ed by the enemies of Jesus Christ and his Truâ—h It is the main design of the Jesuits to make the world believe that the disgraces they brand me with are marks of ignominy but if you will but be pleased to consider their intentions examine the informations they have put in against me and the causes thereof and require thereupon the judgement of our Pastors and Brethren of Rochel who have been eye-and ear-witnesses of all the proceedings that have passed you will think my disparagement glorious and the pretences of my adversaries malicious and criminal One of the most religious and eloquent Ministers of the holy Gospel there hath already written in my vindication with no lesse truth then earnestnesse and his answer hath been highly approved by the defeat of my Enemies I should have pardoned Beaufe's the contumelies he had belched forth against my reputation by an obstinate resolution I had taken to be silent but those who look on the glory of God as what is most considerable in my conversion do conceive me obliged to speak I therefore vindicate my self against a pretended Religious man who seems to have made it his main businesse to do violence to the fundamental maximes of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and tramples on the lawes of charity whereof the Scriptures are full The Canons of the Church of Rome declare a Clerk irregular for having contributed any thing to the execution of a malefactor And yet Beaufes giving himself out to be
their bones start ouâ— through the skin so that at last the fatall morning comes that the nurses brings them home stone dead and dry as skeletons Ah Merciful redeemer of mankind who sometimes out of the bowels of thy infinite love and indulgence saidst to thy Apostles Mat. 19.14 Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for unto such belongeth the Kingdome of Heaven Shall it be lawful for a sort of Barbarous and profane wretches that call themselves Religious men to make havock of the Estates and lives of so many little ones baâ—tis'd into thy Faith and to starve them in a Christian â—ity in a time of abundance and plenty and this in wealthy hospitall purposely built by the charity of â—ome good men for their entertainment And all this â—hile their Murtherers live upon their cost and grow â—t upon their revenues Another way they have to dispatch them which is â—o lesse convenient then the former in order to their â—esign is to put them out to debauched women such â—s endure a certain martyrdome for their lust and luâ—ricity in the diseases consequent thereto and such as â—n whom the French Pox is a familiar and pardonable â—nfirmity by which means these little babes come to â—uck poyson in stead of milk To which may be adâ—ed another trick of these cattell viz that having â—eft them crying on the ground or in their nests for a â—ong time together without ever taking them up it â—s so long ere they get them suckled by some wholeâ—ome and charitable woman that it is easie for a man â—o conjecture nay indeed to be confident that they â—ather wish them dead then alive The other more mysterious and more horrid wayes will be discovered â—o the Judges when they shall be pleas'd to call them â—o account for so many children What I have further to say as to this point is that not content to make havock of the reveneues of these â—ittle expos'd infants and to put them to miserable deaths they have found out a way to gaâ—n money in â—hat troublesome employment and make an advanâ—age of that which they ought to do out of duty All â—he world knowes that they have remov'd all causes â—elating to this Hospitall to be try'd at Grenoble which â—hey have done for two considerable reasons The first is because they might not be within the jurisdiction of the Parlement of Bourdeaux which being near might â—udge of things more justly and with more expedition The second that they might the more abundantly milk their purses who were either suspected or convicted of having expos'd their children For the fear of making a long and troublesome journey and that with all very chargeable obliges those that are either guilty or accus'd to purchace their quiet with money I have heard the Lay-Brother James Philoleau through whose hands all these things passe affirm that he haâ— received more money in one year since the causes werâ— remov'd to Grenoble then he had done in twenty before But especially if some Scholler or Merchanâ— falls into their clutches who either would not oâ— durst not undertake that journey to make his owâ— defence they treat him so unmercifully that theâ— squeese out of him as much for one child as they wilâ— make to serve for half a dozen There 's no necessity I should intreat the Judges 〈◊〉 take this discovery which I have made for the publicâ— good into their consideration the blood of these innocents cryes more loudly in the ears of Justice theâ— that of Abel and there is no reason in the world thaâ— these unfortunate little ones whom the Fathers and mothers expose to the mercy of others should be murther'd by the Jesuits and be so miserable withall aâ— not to find Magistrates to revenge their death and ashes CHAP. V. An information put in against the Jesuits of thâ— Incontinency they are guilty of in theiâ— Classes IT is only for the bright eye of Heaven to shed in rayes upon ditches and dung-hills without any danger of derogating any thing from its purity or losing ought of the lustre of its light It will therefore be hard for me either to fasten my own or direct the reflections of my Reader on the impurities which I can prove the Jesuits guilty of without running some hazard of corrupting our imagination by impure thoughts But the God of purity who expects that in order to the publick good such enormous villanies should be discovered will preserve us by his grace so as that we may go through those pitchy reflections of vice and filthiness without being defiled thereby Ignatius Loyola hath to speak properly left behind him but one Rule for chastity but because he hath recommended it to his Monks that they should not propose to themselves the purity of the greatest Saints nor yet that of the blessed Virgin Mary but Angeâ—ical purity by keeping their bodies in all cleanneâ—s he hath put them into a despair of ever attaining it And thence it comes that not being able to make it appear that they are Angels for they are but too too carnal they have discovered especially of late themselves to be men and those not the least inclined to sensuality and fleshliness The ordinary sort of people who see them converse with so much familiarity with the zealots of the femal sex that come to them and spend three or foure houres with them in frivoloâ—s talking cheek by joll think them as free from these uncleannesses as the highest spheare of celestial bodies is from the impressions of the Earth But these prating gossips who under the cloak of devotion and these ordinary familiarities carry on a lustful love know very well how much they are given to the flesh that is with as little remorse as the crows after the deluge were to the carrions You would from their personations in the business of devotion infer that by a certain elevation of spirit they were soaring up into the sanctuary of the Divinity as eagles do into the bosome of the sunne but I can on the contrary assure you that the greatest part of these lewd wretches are like those filthy vultures which by the height of their flight make as if they were sentinels for the safety of heaven and went a round for the preservation of the earth when in the mean time they have their eyes fastened here below to seize upon the first carrion or serpent they shall see rotting on a dunghil The Jesuits ever did and still do make it their business to perswade these deluded and credulous zealots that their sect does incomparably surpass all other Orders in point of purity but for my part who have lived a long time among them I shall not subscribe to this proposition Nay I dare further affirm that if there be not a greater observation of chastity in other convents then there is in the Jesuits colledges it must be said to the confusion of their Institutions that purity hath
have eaten out or abated the resentment of the wickednesse May it please that glorious holy Spirit who takes its greatest delights to be among the Lillies to gird about their Loines and to take off the violence of their concupiscence to the end that they may not any longer gull the world with deceitfull shews of a pretended chastity CHAP. X. A sixth charge of Obscenities committed by the Jesuits in their conversations with Nuns in their Convents THose who in the Church of Rome speak most advantageously of the Nunnes would have us believe that they ought to be in their Monasteries as the Tree of Life was in the terrestriall Paradise such as then but to touch or gather the fruits thereof there cannot be any thing more piacular But I am to let the reader know that I cannot put a period to this discourse of the lasciviousnesses of the Jesuits till I have shewn him how these subtle Serpents glide even upon those trees and gather the fruits thereof without the least feare that any cherubim what flaming sword soever he may have in his hand should oppose their entrance into those Monasticall Paradises Ignatius Loyola a man that studied Policy much more then any thing of Religion thought it not fit to limit his Monks to the government of any one Order of women that so they might be at a greater liberty to have a certain superintendency over all T is the generall complaints of all Prelates and the Regular Orders at this day that these Cajollers these Students of Sycophancy and insinuation corrupt Religious women by maximes repugnant to the sincerity of Devotion I have known some Libertines of that Society who have dogmatically maintained even in the parlours of women devoted by a solemn vow to chastity and undefilednesse of life that God in that commandment which he hath given us in the Decalogue Thou shalt not commit Adultery obliges men no further then to be discreet and circumspect in their Loves so to avoid giving others any occasion of scandall considering the great inclination to Love which is naturally grafted in all men From which doctrine it must needs follow that all lascivious actions between male and female which by caution and prudence are kept secret from the knowledge of men are not imputable as sinnes in the sight of God but onely those which men tooke notice of And whereas the Law was generally pronounced to all and accordingly equally obliged all it was to be conceived that Religious men and Religious women that is such as had vowed the observation of chastity might privately be allowed reciprocall Visits provided their communications bred no noise in the world it being granted that their conditions cannot be worse then those of other people The tenents are transcendently pernicious and therefore it may easily be guessed what the consequenses may prove It is to me no matter of astonishment if when they have once laid this foundation they should take so much pleasure in conferences of foure or five houres length in the day at the grates of Nunneries T is out of all question that all the discourses that passe there tend not to edification and that the best part of them are lascivious Peter Cluniac one of their Society explicated to one of the Religious women of Saint Ausoni in Engolesme the Treatise of the Impediments which make Marriages invalid not ommitting in his Lectures to be very plain and copious when he came to speak of men that were impotent and maleficiati Father John Adam one of the best Preachers among them interpreted to one Vrseline a Nunne of the Convent of Saint Macaire the Treatise of Generation and spoke as freely and with as much opennesse of expression concerning those parts which contribute to the procreation of children as Monsieur du Laurens does in his Booke of Anatomy James Beaufés instructed a Nunne of our Ladies at Pau in Physiognomie and taught her the way to find out by the observation of the face what is most secret about the body Reignier could find no other discourses in the two Nunneries of Fontenay then those of the diseases of the matrices and the retention of Womens termes c. It is indeed hardly imaginable what a strange height of dissolution and libertinisme they have brought these Religious women to and what a confidence they have raised them to every one having his particular acquaintance whom he treats by the name of Friend Minion Angell c. Putting their hands through the grates and holding one the other thereby are ordinary between them nay it hath happened to above halfe a dozen of these impudent Villaines and shamelesse women that they mutually discovered to one another what nature advises to be kept most secret The Jesuits of Pau betrayed so much lustinesse among the Religious women of our Ladie 's there that many of them had gotten carnall Timpanies in their bellies insomuch that they were forced to disperse those that had been dabling into other places whereof some came to Bourdeaux The Bishop of Limoges surprised severall Love letters written by some of their young Philosophers to the Monasteries of Religious women and sent them back to their Rector with a prohibition that they should not visit those Ladies Of two Jesuits that by permission went into the Convent of Perigueux one was employed in exhorting one of the Nuns that lay at the point of death and the other was gotten alone into a chamber with a very beautifull Nun between him and whom there had past of a long time before very great familiarities We are entertained in histories with the formidable hostilities that passed between the Trojans and the Greeks for a single Helene and Fables tell us of Sieges of ten years with the invention of a Horse that carried an Army within his bowels But the Jesuiticall war among themselves about Religious women will be more true and more famous if there rise but a Virgil as I hope there will to put it into excellent verse It will be no easie work to expresse the infinite discontents whereby the Society is generally pestered the occasions and motives of the civill warre they are engaged in to procure the removall of one another out of the Colledges and the besotted inclinations which these perverse Hypocrites have for their penitents and the Nuns Jealousie does sometimes spread its roots so deep in their minds that they invent execrable crimes to dispossesse their Rivals I can testifie my self that Pinot and Labâ—urier were so farre exasperated against the Philosopher of Rochell that they had brought him to utter disparagement if that person had not vigoriously vindicated himself all the quarrell they had against him being that the women were more taken with him and consequently that he drew the greatest part of their custome to his Shriving-Seat All those who in the yeare 1646. were in the Colledge of Poictiers are not ignorant of the differences between John Adam and James Biroat two persons
silver in Sand and since that time when they were both seized there were found about them many new pieces like those that are but just brought from the mint I suppose the Reader is by this time satisfyed that I have not only insisted upon conjectures such as may be thought sufficient to bring these criminalls to the rack but that I have produced certaine and convictive prooffs such as might bring Barons and Marquesses to a great hazard of their necks if they were brought to tryall for such a crime The Scholer whose industry and simplicity they wrought upon to prepare the materialls was a young man named Ville-neufue borne in Rochefocaud and was a student in the second classe in the yeare aforesaid 1641. He who was the principall instrument to bring the businesse to light and put in an information against them to the Provinciall Pitard was one Michael Brunet then Regent of the fifth Classe in the Colledge of Engoulesme and now a Counseller of the King in the Presidial Court at Rochell otherwise called Monsieur de Ronsay who not able to endure there should be a crime of that nature among persons who make so great a profession of vertue thought himselfe obliged in conscience to reveale it He is a person of too much honour not to beare witnesse to the truth it being supposed that he be juridically interrogated and as in the sight of God Monsieur Guithen who was then Regent of the third classe brought me among diverse others to see the charcole and the linnen cloathes which these Coyners had made provision of and disposed under the second classe having to that purpose taken up one of the plankes Stephen du Noyer then Rector and Bertrand Valade digg'd up the instruments such as hammers bellowes and other utensills which they had buried under ground the more to conceale the crime which yet God in his justice hath found out a means to bring to light to the confusion of a Body which imposes penances upon its members for speaking at night after Letanies and yet fosters in its bosome Coyners and casters of counterfeit mony In a word though all things seeme to speake and cry out against these ungracious villaines and that the crimes wherewith they are charged be of the highest nature yet are they not only suffered to live in France but to raise up their heads above all others even in those great Cities which they defile with their abhominable attempts Whence we may well inferre that there must needs be some other Tribunal some other world some kind of life after this wherein the crimes committed here may receive their punishment and the vertues that are now slighted their recompence otherwise it is to be conceived that it is the fate of vertue to be alwayes in chaines and the Prerogative of Vice to be ever upon the Throne May it please that God who hath the hearts of Kings in his hands to illuminate the understanding of our great Monarch that when he is arrived to Majority he may cleanse the Kingdom of the Lillyes of so many filthinesses and abhominations if our incomparable Queen do not before ease her beloved Son of that trouble CHAP. XII Discovering the Ingratitude and exasperation of the Jesuits against those that had highly obliged them THat famous man who describing the ungratefull and the vindicative said of the former that the good turne made no greater impression on their apprehensions then the lightest feather does on the hardest substance and that indignation was a massy weight of lead in the minds of the latter hath in two words given a most pertinent character of the manners and dispositions of the Jesuits Revenge is a serpent that hath dispersed its venom through this Scciety to such an uncurable degree that when they have received any discourtesy they would gladly eat the flesh suck the marrow and drink the blood of their Enemies if it lay in their power The excesse of their choler does somtimes force them into such furious transportations that they would go into Church-yards were they not deterred by shame to dig out of the ground the carkases of those who had any way disobliged them in their life time for so poore a satisfaction as that of exercising their cruelty on rotten and corrupted bodies Do but consider what mercy they have had on the ashes of the Surin's and Pasquier's that had some time incens'd them and whether they have not written bookes to blast their memories after their death out of a reflection on the feare they were in of their writings while they lived Read but the book called Recherches des Recherches or the Inquisition of Inquisitions written by Garassus and you will find that it could proceed from no other dictation then that of Brutality to write to a person departed this world that he was assured of his damnation The calumnies invented by him to defame that great man are so many demonstrations of the implacability of their fury insomuch that they seeme to have an execration for all those excellent things which made their adversary so famous and their malice is equally directed against his children and his Friends Should a man but see them crowching at the feet of Bishops nay so far as to take off their night-caps to kisse their hands he might haply thence imagine that in point of respects they so much exceed all other Ecclesiasticks as their knees are bent l wer and their reverences speak more externall humility But when he comes on the other side to consider the oppositions they make to their Regulations the secret persecutions they perpetually raise against them the paines they take and the insinuations and sycophancy they make use of to bring them into an odium in the spirits of Kings he will easily find that they have no other designe then to bring them into the greatest contempt imaginable Was it not the Jesuits that egged on the Regular Orders to unite in a plot to violate the priviledges of the Clergie and to dilate the power and heighten the authority of the Pope to their prejudice Was not F. Sabbatheri Procurator of the Assembly held at La Mercy in Bourdeaux against the Arch-bishop When some Bishop or other makes choice of them to preach in his Cathedrall admits a Rector or some professed man of the Society into his congregation or haply unites some fat benefice to their house that Bishop shall be a person of some worth in their apprehensions and it is not impossible they may in ordinary discourse let fall something in commendation of him But hath the same person with ever so much right preferred before them some able Capuchin or some learned Recollect There 's an immediate degeneration of all his excellent parts into absolute ignorance Hath he deny'd his consent for the uniting of some priory to the revenues of the Colledge The same person how considerable soever â—e may be in himself is not in their esteeme any thing â—roportionably to
no other subscription then that of my own name to the act of Profession there are three Pastors the Ancients and the Secretary of the Consistory Is not this enough to unplaister the eyes and hearts of the Judges if so be they are blinded by the importunate sollicitations of the Jesuits wherein they sufficiently play their parts or regard the metaphysicall ratiocination which they make use of to prove that a secret writing ought to passe for an authentick and solemne profession God of his infinite mercy preserve me for ever falling into the hands of these phariâ—aicall Monkes who desire only comma's and punctilio's to ground an endictment against a man who hath ever done them good never hurt and hath not left them out of any other motive then that of putting himself into the way of salvation and an unwillingnesse to consent to their mischievous machinations All therefore that now lies on my hands to do is to shew in what sense I could have treated of my conversion and in the mean time not forbear saying of Masse I must needs acknowledge that to conceal my design I was forced to exercise the functions which I was obliged to before I was illuminated Could I have got away on the very day whereon I was first inspired with that resolution I had done it but the season proved so bad and the weather so rainy that I had but that one faire thursday on which I shook off my chaines Could I further have made a publick profession of my Faith in the midst of Rochel I would have gone that very day among them and embraced their communion but all the world is sensible that it was impossible for me to do any such thing without exposing my â—ife to imminent danger During therefore the time of that intervall it being not in my power to exempt my selfe from saying masse for feare of a surprisall I considered with my self that in conjunctures of so great consequence it was lawfull for me to dissemble according to the generall maximes of the Divinity I had learned among them To the end therefore that I might be as little as possible might be injurious either to the Romane Religion which I was ready to shake hands with or the Reformed which I was upon the point to embrace I had no other intention of celebrating Masse then that of doing in generall what our Saviour had instituted So that if Jesus Christ hath instituted any such thing as Transubstantiation the Romanists cannot charge me with being an Impostor and false to them if he hath instituted only the Symbols of bread and wine to be received by Faith as if they were his body and blood those of the Reformation have nothing to quarrell with me for The Holy Spirit in whose presence I write these lines can bear me witnesse that I speak but the truth If God had been pleased to afford me a greater measure of his grace I might have generously declared to the Rector the reasons upon which I had resolved not to say Masse any longer but I desire the world to judge from the exasperation and fury they have betrayed in their pulpits and the prosecutions they have worryed me with what treatment I must have expected from them in case I had discovered my designe Alasse Had I made but the least discovery I had been six moneths since in the other world and this is so far certain that they have publickly acknowledged as much affirming openly both in their discourses and writings that if I were so desirous to suffer for my beliefe I needed no more then to give them notice of my intention The feare which a constant mind fals into is accounted in the law for an allowable excuse I hope the Judges will pardon my weaknesse and condemn that rigour which at this day is the occasion that there are so many hypocrites in that unhappy Society If all those of their Order who prophane the sacrifice which they call that of the body of Christ were dragg'd to the tribunals of the Civill Magistrate to answer for their Sacriledges what shall become of those who not forbearing the diurnall celebration of Masse procure the death of little children are guilty of forgeries and falsifications in Contracts coyne mony bandy against Kings secretly entertain in their Chambers wenches disguised in mens cloaths and commit monstrous Sodomies with young Schollers as I have sufficiently discovered in the former Treatise Should this happen the cities they inhabit would find it no small work to provide prisons and erect scaffolds and Gibbets for Jesuits There you should have one accus'd for his impious approaches to the Altar coming piping hot out of the Confession-seat where he had spent the time in amorous entertainments with some crack'd commodity You should have another brought to the bar when he had just before sealed up his Letters wherein he had sent some intelligence prejudiciall to the affairs of his Prince and so consequently a many others for having committed severall other crimes not half an houre before The reason is this that these wretched Galley-slaves of Religion are forced to comply with the Custome which they have taken up to say their Masses what condition soever they may be in Which if they do not the Catamites and Zealots whereof the Communities are full very suspiciously question whether such and such be not sick since they had not said their Masses And thus much I thought fit to say in order to my vindication from the crime which they would impose upon me CHAP. VII â—iscovering the childish inventions of Beaufes to make my Letters contradictory one to another THere is not certainly any thing proves more dishonourable to a man that stands much upon the â—â—putation of sincerity then to be surpris'd in triviall â—â—d childish evasions Now according to the present â—ostures of Affaires I see not how Beaufes can avoid â—â—nominy two manner of wayes one by incurring the â—â—putation of a cheat the other in discovering want of â—â—dgement to carry on with successe and with a certain â—â—rcumspection to conceale his circumventions For â—â—ough his beard be powdred by the age of above fifty â—â—ares yet hath he not yet put off the swathing clouts â—â—d weaknesses of his infancy and in two things he â—â—trayes himself more particularly One when he â—â—nyes that I writ two Letters that have come abroad â—â—der my name The other when he would refute â—â—em by certain shreds and fragments of a Letter I had â—â—itten five moneths before my coming from among â—â—em to the Provinciall We shall not think it much to divert our selves so â—â—re as to surprise this bearded infant in his childishâ—esse If you read the advertisement to the Reader you â—â—â—ll find these words The charge which the Jesuits have â—â—ainst M. Vincent is purely civil to oblige him to produce â—â—fore Monsieur the Lieutenant Generall of this City the â—â—â—ginall copy of the book he hath published to be compared â—â—th the Letters whereby
groan at this day under a perpetuall regret which like Prometheus's Vulture continually eats into their hearts I can name some of excellent parts and much learning who having been through the malicious partiality of the Examiners and the prejudice of the Consultors of the Province brought down to the degree of Spirituall Coadjutors are fallen into such an insensibility that being very highly qualified in order to preaching and the reading of either Philosophy or Divinity are become stupid through affliction and have shaken hands with all literary employments condemning themselves to an idle and unprofitable kind of life being over-heard groaning in their chambers and in the Garden-walks with so much expression of heart-burning as might raise compassion in Tygers Some being not any longer able to digest their melancholy in the pleasant Provinces of France will needs go and wander it down in the Forrests of Canada among the Savages there to lead an obscure life as if they had renounced humane Society Others stick not to say by a Proverb come into vogue amongst them That the Goat must needs be content to brouse where she is fastened but were they younger and their health in a better posture they would never continue two moneths in the Society The ground of their discontent is that though they should in processe of time become Oracles in all the Sciences yet are they ever forced to continue in that low degree wherein they are infinitely contemptible in comparison of those that are admitted to the fourth vow The Provincials cannot deny but that they have discarded some men that were able to go through the highest functions and performances of their Society and to the end that that unjustice should not be apparent to all the world they are alwayes put upon base and dishonourable employments I have heard it affirmed by Monsieur de Lingende Bishop of Sarlat one of the greatest wits and the most able Divines in France that they might with a sâ—fe conscience quit the Order and that being treated with so much tyranny they were dispensed from their simple vowes for those never make any solemn And yet so strangely is this great Body animated by Hypocrisy that that is attributed to zeal which proceeds meerly from dissatisfaction insomuch that the greatest part of those that go upon Missions into the East and West-Indies not going thither upon any other account then that of avoiding the domestick traines of villany and discontents they are forced to struggle with I say the greatest part not all these ambitious spirits who make all things contributory to their own reputation will neverthelesse have these afflicted souls transported into those parts as great Apostles and would persuade the people that their earnestnesse for the glory of God had wafted into those barbarous regions such as dissatisfaction and the affronts they had received had banish'd into those disconsolate places It hath been told me not long since by one of the most sincere and vertuous men that were engaged in that Apostolicall Mission that the motive which induced him to go for Portugal and thence into the Indies was the supplantations and intrigues which were but too too apparent in his Province I could give the names and sirnames of a great number of these discontented persons and if the insolence of Beaufés force me thereto I shall do it and moreover produce a catalogue of those that are not of the number of the professed Yet do I think fit to forbear it at the present meerly out of a consideration that it is a kind of inhumanity to adde to the afflictions of a sort of wretches whose consciences cannot groan in this world under a greater burthen then that of their being Jesuits and wanting the courage to quit the Society Nor is this Pandora's box of discontents and disturbances opened onely for the persecution of those that are called formal or Spirituall Coadjutors whom the Lay-Brothers distinguish from the others by the contemptible tiâ—le of The shorter sleev'd Fathers No those that are of the professed number have their share of the mischief but with this difference that the dissatisfactions of these latter last onely for a certain time and those of the others are perpetuall because of the fatall necessity there is by reason of the degree they are in that they should be contemptible In a Country where treacheries are so predominant it is not to be expected that any man should say he lives without discontent The community of the Jesuits is a knot of undermining Serpents let a man be ever so eminent it is impossible he should live a moneth among them where there is so much bandying without making some complaint John de la Renaudie a late Provinciall among them was wont to say that the most eminent of the Society the better to digest dissatisfactions they were to meet with should imagine to themselves that they were condemned to the Galleys for ninety nine years Jealousie makes a division amongst the bravest minds Ambition forms in the souls of all those that are more considerable in the Government of the Society great idaea's of their own persons for perceiving themselves raised to a higher condition then their Brethren they think no acknowledgements more then their due And this is the seminary of those bloody complaints those inappeaseable heart-burnings and the implacable discontents which raise divisions among them and smother all sentiments of Charity If therefore there be any man that ever heares them make their braggs that their Order is the Land of Goshen full of light while the Egyptian world is covered with darknesse let him confidently reply that it is a piece of ground full of noisome mists and clouds and if out of an excesse of insolence they further retort and affirm it to be the suburbs of Paradice answer it is the dark entry that leads to Hell thus described by their Virgil where Luctus ultrices posuere cubilia curae Pallentèsque habitant morbi tristÃsque senectus Terribiles visu formae lethumque labosque Tum consanguineus lethi sopor et mala mentis Gaudia mortiferumque adverso in limine bellum Ferreique Eumenidum thalami et discordia demens Vipereum crinem vittis innixa cruentis Multa ubi praeterea variarum monstra ferarum Centauri in foribus stabulant Scyllaeque biformes Et centum geminus Briareus ac bellua Lernae Horrendum stridens flammisque armata chimaera Gorgones Harpyiaeque et forma tricorporis umbrae where Sorrow repos'd with her revenging rage Pale sicknesses and discontented age Fear with dire famine and base Poverty Labour and death shapes terrible to see Then Sleep ally'd to Death and fond joyes are Plac'd on the other side with deadly warre On iron beds Furies and Discord sit Their viperous hair with bloody fillets knit Then a huge brood Of various monsters biform'd Scylla stood And Centaures in the Porch with hundred hands Briareus and the Lernian Hydra stands Chimaera hissing loud and arm'd
of his greatest confidents who make no account of the rest though in all things to be preferred before them Thence also comes it that at Rome the General growes so imperious by reason of the intelligence that is between him and the Provincials whom he knows to be his creatures that the yoke of obedience becomes insupportable Now let the Reader consider with himself whether any honest man can possibly bear with the insolence of these Machiavils without so much as writing some Letters to discover his resentment of such miscariages The fourth misfortune is the damme of no fewer disturbances and dissatisfactions These pearching Rectors not for that they had those parts which were necessary for their recommendation to the Government but meerely for their complyances with the Provincial and the excellent talent they had in dissimulation and sycophancy do all things with such an absolute power that they are not any way to be diverted or opposed And whereas it ordinarily happens that those who are of very slender abilities would fain make it appear in their actions that they are persons of a great reach and conduct so those pitiful Rectors who labour in order to another man's harvest to let the world see that they are highly qualify'd for Government carry themselves like Bashaw's and never taking any other advice then that of their own heads dispose of the Revenues and persons of their Colledges with so much tyranny that the condition of the most ignorant is at this day to be preferred before that of the most learned T is the generall complaint of the gravest men that all designes are undertaken and accomplished without communication for these proud upstarts would think themselves slighted if a knowing man had given them some good advice I have been in some Colledges where the Rectors have made so little account of the Ancients that they called them not into their chambers to consult with them once in six moneths and when they did they proposed nothing but trifles so true is it that the presumption of some particular men hath brought the Government among them to an incredible height of insolence For a man to see his condition and fortunes managed according to the humour of an imperious ignorant man and not bemoan himself speaks a constancy above that of the severest Stoicks There remains yet a fift spring of discontents which is that the same Rectors carry things on with such an absolute disposall in their Colledges that it is in their power to put in execution their own advice though contrary to that of all the rest and to oblige nay they really do oblige their Subjects prejudicially to the Lawes of the Nation they live in to obey their unjust commands and to do their will In this point the Juniors are so insolent that they impose upon the most illustrious things that are highly base and unworthy meerly to shew their Authority and to make them know as they say themselves that they are the Grand Masters What possibility is there that a man of any courage should patiently suffer his judgement to truckle under that of an extravagant person and not take occasion to discover some regret at such unhandsome dealings CHAP. X. Assigning other undenyable causes of discontent among tht Jesuits taken from the injustice of their Superiours THere is no Community that can possibly keep long together without justice though it were a community of common Rogues and Highway-men The most notorious defect chargeable upon those whose devastations are so remarkable in the Province of Guienne is a neglect of Justice whereof the perpetuall attendants are those of Rebellion such as threaten the approaching dissolution and ruine of that Body All Jesuits even to the Novices are not a little troubled to see Offices distributed among a small number of persons Some continue Superiours for the space of fifteen or twenty years and others are excluded from ever being such though they have the generall approbation of all to be the most prudent There is nothing more generally heard both in their greater and lesser Colledges then these words Why is not such an one N. N. chosen Superiour and there may be perceived a cloud of sâ—dnesse and dissatisfaction rising in the countenances of those that hear it In like manner when some Superiour comes in the time of recreation and sayes that the Rectorship is conferred on such an one the generall silence wherewith the news is entertained the stifling of all discourse for some time and the reciprocall looks that passe between them as they expresse their admiration and astonishment so do they very much discover how infinitely they are troubled to see persons of no worth raised out of the dirt to domineere over others so to make those great men that are discountenanced the more despicable When tidings came that la Rhede was chosen Rector of the Colledge of Agen Peter Cadiot of that of Rochell Bernard Soulier of that of Poictiers Fronton Gadaud of that of Pau the disdain and scorn conceived thereat was universall nay many sticks not publickly to laugh at the choice All a man hath to do to be excluded all employments is to be indu'd with those qualities that are necessarily requisite for him to be admitted thereto Learning is accounted a disqualification in order to preferment under pretence that great Wits are not the most fortunate in things relating to the practick Solidity of judgement and a more then ordinary constancy are alwayes enviously looked on by those that sit at the helme so that it is the main part of their businesse to finde out pretences for their exclusion T is given out of some that they are too much inclined to choler of others that they are too melancholy of some that they are guilty of too much confidence of others that there would never be a good intelligence between them and the General and so as it commonly happens that all great minds have some imperfection these envious wretches take advantage of the defects of such eminent persons to exclude them from the government Hence it comes to passe that those whom Nature had favoured with a certain preheminence are made Vassals and those whom the same Nature had ordained to submission are invested with superiority and consequently the Latter grow insupportably insolent the former are exasperated The Pope coming at last to hear of these circumventions publish'd a Brief not long since whereby he commands that all Superiours the Generall only excepted should be displaced precisely at the expiration of three years and should not be admitted to any superiority for the space of eighteen moneths thence next ensuing This intermission of Government making them equall if not inferiour to those whom before they had tyrannised over galled their spirits to the quick they accordingly left not a stone unmoved to get the Brief repealed but not being able to obtain it they could not be persuaded to have it proclaimed to the great contempt of the Popes power
ruinate Then will I bring My offering And thy great acts relate Thy name for ever praised bee Who from those snares hast set me free For loe these eyes My enemies Desir'd subversion see THE END SECRET INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SVPERIOVRS OF THE SOCIETIE OF JESUS Faithfully rendred out of the Latine Of the strange discovery of these Secret INSTRUCTIONS VVHen Christian Duke of Brunswick who also pretended to the Bishoprick of Halberstadt ransack'd not many yeares since the Jesuits Colledge at Paderborn he bestowed their Library and all their writings whatsoever upon the Fathers Capuchins who among the Archivi of the Rector found these SECRET INSTRUCTIONS And that the like accident happened at the Jesuits Colledge at Prague there are creditable persons that will testifie Nor indeed can any man well doubt that hath the least acquaintance or familiarity with the Jesuits but that the principall persons of the Society do manage all things according to some private directions of this nature received from their General when there is nothing fo manifest as that the behaviour of the Jesuits is in all things suitable to the present Collection On the other side it is certain that they are not any way consistent with those Rules Constitutions and Instructions of the Society that are printed insomuch that it does not require an excesse of Faith to believe that the best part of the Superiours among the Jesuits for some it is granted they may not have the least knowledge thereof have not onely a double habit but also a double Rule one domestick and private the other fitted for Courts and the publick that they are Introrsum turpes speciosos pelle decorâ or such as our Saviour describes the Pharisees when he said ye are like to whited Sepulchres fair to the sight of men without but within full of rottennesse and dead mens bones So the Jesuits make great shewes to the world of justice and Sanctimony while they are within full of iniquity and Hypocrisie Which character of them that it proceeds rather from truth then any spirit of envy or aggravation there needs no other conviction then that a man call to mind how that Claudius Aqua viva their own Generall charged the greatest part of the Superiours with a◠over pragmaticall frequentation of Princes Courts too much m ling with temporall affaires and Hypocrisie as being such as under pretence of Gods glory and the furthera ce of their Neighbours welfare sought onely themselves and their own advantages Be it therefore left to the judgement of the Christian Reader to consider whether these short Commentaries of secret Admonitions be to be taken for that DEPOSITUM whereof Saint Paul puts Timothy in mind where he sayes O Timothy Keep that which is committed to thy trust and the things that thou hast heard of me the same commit thou to faithfull men c. The Principall Heads of the Instructions SECT I. Discovering how the Society ought to behave it self immediately upon some new Foundation granted them in any place SECT II. What course is to be taken to insinuate into the Favour and familiarity of Grandees and Princes SECT III. What we are to expect from such Grandees as being much behind hand as to matter of money are neverthelesse of great esteem and authority in the Common-wealth and may otherwise very much oblige us SECT IV. Of the principall designe of such as are Preachers and Confessors to Princes and Great men SECT V. How we are to behave our selves towards those Religious Orders which pretending to the same design with us do very much derogate from us SECT VI. How to cajoll rich Widdowes into a veneration of the Society SECT VII Of the wayes of perswading Widowes to perseverance in a single life as also of the disposall of their Revenues SECT VIII Of certain expedients whereby it may be effected that the Sonnes and daughters of such women as have resigned themselves to the conduct of our Society may embrace a Religious kinde of Life SECT IX Of the wayes whereby the Revenues of our Colledges may be improved SECT X Of the necessity there is to make some ostentation of the severity of discipline in the Society SECT XI How the Fathers of the Society are generally to behave themselves towards those that are dismissed SECT XII Of the choice of young Lads for the Society and the wayes whereby they are to be retained SECT XIII Of the Nunnes SECT XIV Of reserved cases and other causes of Dismission out of the Society then what have been mentioned before SECT XV. What persons of the Society are most to be cherished and encouraged SECE XVI Of the contempt of wealth Conclusion SECRET INSTRUCTIONS For the SVPERIOVRS OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS SECT I. Discovering how the Society ought to behave it self immediately upon some new Foundation granted them in any place The Society is to endeavour to ingratiate it self as much as may be with the Inhabitants of the place where they are enterta ned especially upon the allowance of a new Foundation This may be advantageously done by an explication of the end an design of the Society as it is layd down in the second Rule of the Summary namely To be as tender of the wellfare of our Neighbour at their own Upon this account are the meanest things to be underg ne Hospitals are to be visited the poorest ministred unto and advised the Fathers are to go to places at no small distance if need require to receive the Confessions of all whatsoever charitable collections are to be made and those to be disposed of to the poor in the presence of many to the end that they edified and stirred up by our example may afterwards prove the more liberall towards us Let there be remarkeable generally in all a great observance of externall modesty such as may prove matter of edification to others If any among us fail but as to that very point let them be dismissed the Society SECT II. What course is to be taken to insinuate into the favour and familiarity of Grandees and Princes THis is above all others a thing to be endeavoured with the greatest earnestnesse possible T is a lesson learnt by experience that Princes do ordinarily conceive an affection for spirituall and ecclesiasticall persons when their actions are not Baptistically censured and reproved but with as much favour as may be all viated This is apparent in the marriages of Princes with their nearest kindred there arising alwayes great difficulties in the negotiation thereof by reason of the vulgar opinion which fastens something of execration on such contracts When therefore we see Princes resolved on such things it will be our duty to encourage and assist them in their incestuous inclinations Let such reasons be insisted on as may heighten their desires as for instance that Matrimony with those circumstances might prove the occasion of a stricter allyance and contribute more to the glory of God In like manner when the Prince
said to have been unadvisedly undertaken Besides it is in a manner naturall to most men to make inquisition into the least miscariages of others yet passe by their worthy actions though never so apparent intimating the Unltures that mind not sound and living bodies but smell and follow at a great distance stinking carcases No doubt but there are in the Society of the Jesuites many that are not chargable with any malice or wickednesse many eminent for their Learning and Virtues but these unlesse it be when they discover themselves by the Books they set forth or are publickly employ'd make no noise among them For they are not wont to put into the more considerable employments such as are most remarkable for their excellent Learning and sanctity but those who are best furnished with craft confidence and brazen foreheads For having made it their design to heap up riches together to be made use of as I have said to carry on great enterprizes and men inclin'd to Learning being of that simplicity that they have neither cunning nor courage enough to work men out of their Inheritances and hedge in still greater sums of money 't is but fit they should grate upon this employment those that are of unanswerable importunity such as having had many repulses renew their sollicitations and watch all opportunities to compasse their designs And when these creatures happen to miscarry in any thing which is no more then speakes the decayes of humanity and cannot be avoided two things are consequent thereto One that their faylings are sure to be observ'd and talk'd of among the common people For that 's a thing we all generally know saies Zenophon in Agesilaus that what is done by eminent persons cannot be hid which is also insinuated by the Poet in this distich Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Crimen habet quanto major qui peccat habetur The other is that be the offence ever so small yet the malice of men shall so magnifie it as to make an Elephant of a Fly To such men therefore whether considerable for their dignity or their reputation it may be thought Seneca directed this wholsome precept De Clem. l. 1. cap. 8. Alia conditio eorum est qui in turba quam non excedunt latent quorum virtutes ut appareant ac videri possint diu luctantur vitiatenebras habent Vestra facta dictaque rumor excipit et ideo nullis magis cavendum est quaelem samam habeant quam vobis qui qualemcunque merueritis magnam habituri estis There is a great difference between your condition and theirs who not exceeding the ordinary rate of men do accordingly make no noise in the World and whose vertues as it is with much strugling and difficulty that they come to appear to the publick view so does their obscurity draw a curtaine over their vices But what you either do or fry comes into the mouth of Fame and therefore none ought to be more carefull what reputation they may have with men then you since that whatsoever you may whether good or bad deserve you must expect it will bee great From Bononia Kal. Decemb. M. D C. X. FINIS A DISCOVERY Of the SOCIETY In relation to their POLITICKS Written Originally BY A Well-wisher to the JESVITS To the READER WEe are by a Divine Authority assur'd that there are those in the world who who like the deaf Adder out of pure obstinacy will not hear the voice of the Charmer and that there is a generation of men that hate to be reformed Thence is it that accordingly experience is so pregnant to shew that of all the people these look on the least discovery of their enormities as the most hainous injury can be done them making so little advantage either of the charming Admonitions of Friends or the censorious Reproaches of Adversaries that thâ—y think it the greatest shame that may be to retract and choose rather to betray their exasperation then expresse any desires of amendment That the ensuing Piece was written long since and that by a Person not much an enemy to the Jesuits are things not to be dissembled as being remarkable from severall passages of it but to give an an account of the present revivall of it is what cannot be done without a certain regret and compassion That Religious men such as had by solemn Vowes abjur'd not only the enjoyments of this world but also all commerce with it as to what concerns the management of the affairs thereof should be guilty of so great miscarriages argues such a grievance and dereliction of the Spirit that according to their Justification they should be guided by as cannot without horror fall into the reflection of a good man But to find them so wedded to mischievous practises as that though they were long since lay'd at their doores there should still be a necessity to bring them upon the stage and that meerly because former remonstrances proved fruitlesse and ineffectuall it certainly speaks not an indifference or backwardnesse but a hatred of reformation And yet thus does the case stand with the Society whose courses gave occasion of the present DISCOVERY A DISCOVERY Of the SOCIETY In relation to their POLITICKS c. UPon the first Institution of the Society and religious Order of the Jesuites it was generally look'd upon as a Tree planted in the Vineyard of Christ whereof the fruits should be an Antidote against the poison of Heresy and whose blossoms should be no other then those of Christian and Religious works for the edification of and reduction of those souls that otherwise were likely to stray And such no doubt it was intended by the Founder thereof Ignatius and such it is to be thought continu'd while it was cultivated by those first Fathers from whose Piety and austerity as it deriv'd vigour and life so did it force the esteem and veneration of all This glorious Tree spread it self into two Branches one of Love towards God the other toward their Neighbour So that considering the smalness of its roots it is almost incredible what abundance of fruit it brought forth in the excellent education of children the saving of souls and the propagation of Christian and Catholick Faith But the indefatigable Enemy of Mankind the Devill who is exasperated at all manner of good and whatsoever hath the least tendency to reformation discover'd his earnestness and subtilty to destroy this glorious tree and with it all the fruitfull advantages the world expected to reap thereby taking occasion even from the greatness it self of this Religious Order and from that admirable improvement which it had made in so small a space of time to pervert the first Institution thereof with artifices sycophancy and insinuation Instead of these two branches of Charity towards God and man now utterly dry'd up he hath engrafted two others one of self-love the other a spirit minding only the advantages of this World Which how great