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
Godliness is hapned to them for saith the Apostle He is proud knowing nothing but doating about questions and strifes of words from whence cometh envy strife evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds who have not the knowledge of the Truth supposing that gain is Godliness 1 Tim. â— 3. The design of this Collection is to make appear that God by a secret order of his Providence hath abandoned the Jesuites to these unhappy Attendants of insiâ—cerity in Religion and to demonstrate particularly in this That he hath given them up to the two most pernicious enormities which according to the Apostle are the effects of mens infidelity and unwillingnesse to embrace the instructions of Jesus Christ which are To be puft up with pride and to imagine that godlinesse is to be used as a means to enrich themselves For by the extracts we have reported out of the Image of their First Age will appeare on the one side The pride of their hearts and to what a pitch of extravagance their self-conceitednesse hath carried them as that there is not any artifice injustice or violence they implâ—y not to enrich themselves by the spoils of all sorts of persons Secular and Religious Soveraign and private They have no cause of complaint that we attribute these disorders to the Society for that though they were onely the faults of those particular persons who committed them they might neverthelesse be justly imputed to the Society as authorizing them all by the doctrine she defends and the impunity the offenders find in her bosome For where are the punishments she inflicted on them who acted such violences and inhumanities against the Nuns of Voltigerode What course hath she taken to repair the damages sustained by so many desolate families ruined by the banquerupt of the Colledge at Sevil. Let any one saith Mariana Chap. 14. have but boldnesse enough what faults soever he be guilty of he remains in the Society if he have but the wit to frame an excuse or any pretence for what he hath committed I passe by gross crimes a great number whereof is winked at under colour of want of sufficient proof or fear to have them noysed and so become publick â—or our Government seems to aim at nothing else but covering of faults like them who rake the asheâ— uppermost as if the fire that lies under would not sooner or later send forth some smoke No rigour is exercised but upon those poor wretches who have neither power nor protection whereof there are instances enough others shall commit the greatest mischiefs imaginable and yet no man touch one hair of their head A Provincial or Rector shall turn all upside down violate the Rules and Constitutions of the Order squander away the Estate belonging to their Houses or give them to his Kindred without any punishment after severall years miscarriage but the rendring of his condition better than ever by discharging him of his Office Does any man know a Superior chastised for such excesses as these And afterwards having wished that there were in the Society Rewards provided for the good and Punishments for the vicious he addes 'T is a lamentable thing and permitted by God for our sins that oftentimes we practise the contrary for among us the Good are afflicted yea put to death without cause or for very light reasons because we are assured to find no contradiction nor resistance from them whereof we could produce many deplorable examples and the wicked are upheld because they are feared A conduct capable to provoke God to precipitate the Society into the Abyss of Destruction See how this Author who was a member of the Soiety deplores â—her policy that engages her unhappily to conâ—ive at the greatest enormities of the persons of whom she consists And how farre she is answerable for their greatest extravagancies by cherishing and maintaining them and making it her Choyce to tolerate in them all sorts of Corruptions rather than discover to the World any thing that may induce the people to believe the Society is composed of any but Saints It were easie to prove that the Greatest part of the Maxims of their Moralls are grounded on nothing else but the libertinage of the members whose justification the Society undertakes When one of the Company had seduced his Penitent and made use of pretended Revelations to cover under the name of marriage his impurities and sacriledge Another of the Society to justifie the Crime fails not to teach That a Fryar profest may marry upon a probable Revelation If one publish Calumnies against the most innocent persons because he imagines they did the Society prejudice Another will teach That a Fryar may not only destroy the reputation but slay the person of any he foresees may annoy the Glory of his Order Lastly if some be so wicked as to inspire the Subjects of best Princes with designs against their Lives and the quiet of their Estates Others will compose intire Volumes to justifie those Assassines and Murtherers and the Society will Canonize them for Saints and Register them in the Catalogue of Martyrs especially if they be of her Children May it not be truly said then that the Members of the Society commit not any disorder that may not justly be imputed to the Society it self But 't is not our purpose in this Collection where we shall report nothing but what hath been done by whole Houses and intire Provinces and the Society it self appeared highly in defence of So that we shall omit a great number of stories whereof we have most ample and Authentick Memoirs in our hands with the Names and Surnames of the Persons the Houses the Provinces and the Circumstances of their Crimes specified so particularly that there cannot remain the least doubt of the truth of the facts alleadged which yet shall one day see light if these Fathers force us to publish there is not any enormity in the Catalogue of Vices which is not practised amongst them that they abuse their Missions into strange Countreys to lay snares for the Chastity of the Inhabitants their Conversation the Word of God and surintendence of Monasteries to corrupt Virgins consecrate to God Mens Daughters and Wives the Sacrament of Penance to pervert mens Consciences and pollute their Colledges and Congregations by Enormities not to be named There is evidence sufficient for this in the book F. Jarrige the Jesuite of Rochell published against them wherein the matters of fact are set forth with all their particular circumstances that not to believe them were to offer violence to our senses 'T is true the Book was published during his Apostacy but 't is as remarkable that after his return to the Church of Rome and his publishing at Antwerp in the Jesuites Colledge the causes of his return and discoursing at large of that Book he charges himself with too much heat in the writing but doth not particularly disavow any one of those scandalous stories he reported therein This
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 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
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
spend their time and bestow their pains to no purpose I could wish they would learn that the end of Confession is to convert men at once that they commit not the same offences again That there is no commerce between frequent Câ—mmunion and Vice To frequent the Sacraments is highly useful for all duties of Christianity And you shall hardly find them defective in any part of Christian Righteousness who often approach these fountains of vertue and salvation or any publick licentiousness in a town where the frequent use of these mysteries hath been confirmed by a laudable custome For what Commerce can there be between the Author of holiness and corruption of manners What place is therefore the darkness of hell in those hearts that are irradiated by the eternal light Therefore the Society having proposed for the end of her labours to establish vertue declare war against vice and to serve the publick 't is no marvel she commends to our greatest veneration the frequent use of the Eucharist as the Arsenal of the Christian Militia the Soveraign Remedy against all maladies and infallible comfort in the worst of miseries You have heard already and shall hear further in its proper place how the Iesuites to promote their interest and carry on their carnal designs admit all persons without examination to the participation of the body of Iesus Christ. Artifices of Devotion invented by the Society to draw the people on the three gaudy dayes and the first dayes of the month to the Communion I shall produce here one only example of the Roman magnificence in the present year 1640. for we have certaine news that the brethren of our Congregation laid out nine thousand Florins on the solemnity of these three dayes to draw the minds of the people from profane licentiousness to the love of piety They 〈…〉 a great Machine in our Church of Farnese at Rome in honour of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the height was one hundred and twenty spans the breadth was eighty exquisitely embellished with curious Statues Images Histories and Emblems to the ravishment of the Spectators the Church shining with extraordinary lustre by the light of four thousand Flambeaus The service was celebrated with so much pomp and so delicious a consort of the Popes musick that there wanted only the presence of the Pope to make it the most Majestick sight on Earth Alphonso Gonsague Arch-Bishop of Rhodes said Mass seventeen Cardinals and almost all the Prelates of the Court of Rome were present five Cardinals more came in afterwards all the Ambassadors of Kings and Princes several Religious Orders and all the Arch-Fryaries of Rome Lastly during the three dayes such throngs of people flocked to the Communion that instead of profane Bacchanals they really kept a feast of Paradise Another Artifice of the Society for more frequent Communion was the invention of Communicating the first day of the month which pleased Pope Paul the fifth so well that he granted indulgencies thereupon and by that bait of publick deâ—â—tion drew â— great concourse of people to the Holy Table The Society rejoycing at the success took the boldness to invite Cardinals to administer 〈◊〉 Sacrâ—ment whereby the number of Communicants 〈◊〉 greatly augmented the people being ravished to receive at the hands of so Illustrious Persâ—ns the pledge of their Salvation Five Cardinals did it and at Rome at one day and in one Church they compâ—ed sâ—metimes sixteen thousand sometimes twenty and sometimes thirty thousand Communicants and from thence this piâ—us custome over-spread the whole Earth So that at Lisbon in the Church belonging to the house of our Profession the Sacrament 〈◊〉 administred to twenty five thâ—usand in one day 〈◊〉 six or seven in Brussels and as many at Antwerp in one of those dayes and bad our Churches been capable of more persons the number of Communicants would have been greater General Reflections on all the extracts out of the Image of the first age THe Iesuites never spoke truer of themselves than when they assumed the title of The Pharisees of the New Law And though they have been so vain as to attribute to themselves undue praises they have this once declared so great a truth that we may take them at their word 'T is the Spirit of Pharisaisme hath caused them to write those great Volumes stuffed only with their praises and to prove they are not as other men Christ blamed the Pharisees of his time for affecting the chief places in Assemblies and to be honoured as the principal Doctors and Guides of the people The Iesuites extol themselves above all Orders of Religion march still in the first rank and call themselves masters of the world The ancient Pharisees took upon them to dispense with the principal Commandments of the Law but are clearly out-done by their successors the Pharisees of our time for what have they left undone to shew We are not obliged to Love God nor to give almes And they that find most subtleties to dispense with good works are in most esteem among them and to this Banius Tambenius â—scobar and others owe their reputation Those holy men that went before them had no other secret for the conversion of men than to preach Christ crucified and to take off thâ— sâ—andal of the Cross by the practice of humility But the prudence of these new Apostles consists in hiding from the people they pretend to convert the folly of the Cross as may be one day proved more clearly than they are awarâ— of The first word of St. Iohn Baptist of Chriâ—â— and his Apostles address to Sinners was Repenâ—â— But the Iesuites willing to spare all that is troublesome and professing themselves complaisant civil and gentle directors have founâ— out a way to remit sins without obliging 〈◊〉 a rude and harsh Repentance and to make Confession so easie and pleasant that the most criminal will not decline it but run to 't as willingly as they did to Sin as themselves assure us When Confessors believed it a matter of difficulty to leave ill habits and that we 〈◊〉 strive to enter in at the strait gate of Heaveâ— they were not satisfied with words without seeing the fruits of a solid Repentance so thâ—â— those who were inclined not to reform theâ—â— lives nor to make restitution of ill gotten goodâ— nor quit ill company durst not present themselves before the tribunal of the Church whose severity they feared which made true penitence rare even in the primitive times a thing not easily performed but difficult and toylsom The same Fathers who taught us That the life of Grace was freely received by us in Baptism instructed us also That a Soul dead in sin is not easily revived and that when we have made our selves slaves to the Devil it is very hard to break his chains when we have blinded our selves in following our lusts we cannot without miracle come out of darkness and return into the way of Iesus Christ. Lastly
retain them so that neither this Monastery of St. Vrsula of Metz nor the Community thereof had a beginning but from the day when the first of the Appellantes made profession there and the Community was not accomplished untill there were three Nuns profest that two infallible and decisive consequences arose from hence the one that the Appellantes who made up the true Monastery having not been privy to the Contract nor ratified it the Defendant had no Action against them nor morgage on their dowers the other That they could not be otherwise answered than as Minors who are alwayes relieveable in these things they may have done to their prejudice That judgement had been given in the like case for the Jesuites of Authun and Bourg in Bresse as may appear by an Arrest of the Parliament of Dijon in 1632. and by a judgement of the Presidial of Bourg in Bresse whereby the Jesuites relieved for purchases they had made to their prejudice being damnified a third part thereby in the price paid above the value of the things purchased That there is damage sustained of above two thirds for in 1627. this house with another adjoyning called Duponce was bought at twenty seven thousand Francs Messines In 1642. the Jesuites upon an exchange valued it but at thirty thousand Francs with all the improvement and buildings they had erected after the demolishing of others very considerable In 1646. it was farmed at four hundred and fifty Francs Mâ—ssines per Ann. In 1649. they offered it to Nuns and a person of quality at twenty seven thousand Francs of the same money but they refused it as not worth so much Yet the same year 1649. F. Forget the Rector having been in several Cities of the Kingdom and afterwards addressing himself to the Vrsulines of Mascon surprized them by several untrue suggestions and sold them this house at thirty thousand Liures Tourtois currant money of France which make fourscore thousand Francs Messines so that the Nuns are damnified above two thirds that besides the consideration of damage the frauds artifices cheats and false suggestions on which the contract was grounded make it void and null This will appear by a writing of F. Forgets intituled Important Avisoes wherein he hath described this house but with many fictions and disguisements of the Truth both as to its situation and the consistence of the buildings and promised several advantages which had never been nor ever will be and to gain the better credit he writ and caused to be written a great number of Letters to the said Vrsulines and the late Lord Bishop of Mascon and not content with this he sold the house according to a plat-form and model both of the body of the lodgings and the frontispiece signed with his hand but found false upon view and comparison made of the house with the model That he had sold it as in good condition according to the view taken and by him reported at Mascon which was also false That he sold it as all regularly built and fit for Nuns so that there was not said he any thing unfinished but the grates and windows whereas in truth there was not one regular place save the Dormitory which was not habitable by reason of the stink and infection of the River Seille and the publick Sewers that there was no Church no burying place no Cloyster that he suggested other Nuns would have bought it which was not true that the Nuns of Mascon who were sent to instruct the Virgins of this new Monastery in the rules of Religion and their Order being accompanied with two persons of Quality bound for Metz to see whether they had been cheated in the buying of this house when they came to Chaumont F. Forget made them believe that they could not pass further without danger of their lives which caused their return to Mascon as may appear by a letter of F. Forgets yet the morrow after F. Forget writ another letter quite contrary to the former Lastly that there was so much deceit and fraud in the business that it was evident F. Forget to make the Nuns of Miscon believe that this house cost the Jesuites more than he sold it for suggested to them that the decree of adjudication was made to them for twenty two thousand and three hundred Liures without adding Messines and afterwards in his suggestions of the workmens accounts and acquittances he made them also believe that there were improvements and buildings of above fifteen thousand Liures Tourtois value which was not so in regard that allowance being made for the buildings they had demolished all the improvements were not worth two thousand five hundred Liures Tourâ—ois Further F. Forget fearing lest the Nuns upon the place might have discovered the trick of Liures Messines dexterously stipulated by the bargain of Sale that the Evidences of their purchase of this house were not to be put into the hands of the buyers till after full payment of the whole price That the lapse of ten years could not be objected against the Appellantes because their Community had its beginning between five and six years since That by Evidence communicated by the Defendant himself it appeared that the Nuns of Mascon who remained there had made continual complaint against the Rector of the Iesuites for the cheat he had put upon them That this was carefully concealed from these in this Monastery that the Rector of the Iesuites did plot and contrive by intelligence and correspondence with others to deceive the Nuns that were to make profession in this Monastery by keeping the contract from their knowledge That the pretended ratification of Decemb. 13. 1649. made by the Nuns of Mascon sent hither could not hurt or prejudice the Appellants who never appeared nor intermedled therein nor had ever agree'd or ratified it That the pretended ratification had been contrived and extorted by F. Forget who was Director Spiritual and Temporal to the Nuns who came from Mascon that by the reading it was evident he had digested and compiled it as he pleased That it was visibly false in all its propositions and could not give validity to a contract in it self fraudulent and null That the Contract of Sale could not oblige the Appellants who were not privy to it since it is not permitted for any to stipulate for a third person That the Letters of restitution were not necessary for the Appellants but for a surabundance of good right they had taken them to the end no act they could have done might be objected against them That the Defendant having already received eighteen thousand Livres Tournois it was much more than the house was worth therefore he concluded that in regard of the said Letters and in allowance thereof the parties ought to be remitted into the same estate they had before the Contracts of Septemb. 16. and Decemb. 13. 1649 and the Defendant condemned to restore the eighteen thousand Livres by him received upon the Appellants