of all By this they labour to spread the Gospel of Christ and teach the way of perfection not to little ones and ignorant people but to those who are or should be grown up to a manhood in perfection For the manner of preaching three things are set down in the first Tome of the Hist of the Society l. 2. which from the beginning the preachers of the Society set themselves for inviolable precepts according to which afterwards their rules were drawn The first is that for the matter of their Sermons they should omitting obscure and curious questions insist chiefly on those things which contain Christian duty to extirpate vice and plant vertue The second that they should never affect an empty verbal eloquence nor study quaint termes but solid truthes and eternal verities which they should animate with a fervour expressed in their eyes voice countenance and gesture Lastly that remembring that those preachers were most efficacious who brought their own example for instance of what they said they should live so that their whole life might continually preach all that they taught in the pulpit These are the rules of their Preachers by observing which they have and do dayly through Gods grace work great effects The fifth employment enters farther into the interior of mens souls It consisteth in administring the Sacraments specially of confession and communion The frequenting these two Sacraments was the exercise of the primitive Church as Coccius and divers learned authors prove And for confession besides those places wherein power is given to priests to absolve sins we have Act. 19. v. 18. that many of the believers did come to Paul and his companions announcing their acts or as the Syriack hath it offensas suas their offences For the holy communion we have the expresse text of Acts 2.42 They were persevering in the communion of breaking of bread which all antiquity ever understood as likewise modern Authours do of frequent communion This was their practice and whilst this practice lasted their fervour was such as after ages have ever admired But in successe of time impiety so perverted mens mindes that they grew to love their sins and hate the remedies Before the Society was instituted as Florimond and divers authors tell it was a disgrace to frequent the Sacraments but St. Ignatius and his restored this Primitive custome of the Church For this reason the Learned Cardinal Baronius who had seen what was the practise of the World sometime before and a long time after the Society was erected used to call the Jesuites church at Rome Anastasia that is Resurgens Rising because that in that place he said he seemed to see the Catholick church rise out of the Lethurgy of sin to a new vigour by frequenting these two so wholesome sacraments Indeed it is wonderful to see what strange concourse there is now a daies in all catholick countries to these two Sacraments churches are filled and the confessors are fain to fit all the day long in their seats and that not at Easter only or once or twice a year but upon all the great feasts In particular it is remarkable how those daies usually consecrated to debauchments I mean Shrovetide are now spent in Catholick countries For where there is a Colledge of the Society there is alwaies at that time a general communion to which all are by precedent sermons invited And they come so fast that in great Towns they reckon the communicants by thousands In some cities there have been counted twenty in some thirty in some fourty thousand that in one Shrovetide have received the holy Eucharist in the church of the society The sixt employment is the giving the spiritual Exercise which because it is almost unknown in England even to most catholicks I must explicate it The spiritual exercise then is a retirement in which the Excercitant withdrawes himself for some number of daies from all communication with others in order to attend to converse with God and his own soul in prayer In this retirement divers meditations are given and several instructions accomodated by an experienced ghostly Father to every one whereby the soul is lead to a knowledg of her self a decestation of her sins a love of God and imitation of Christ That wherein these spiritual Exercises do most specially help the soul is to make a good election and settle well the future life of every one according to his own vocation These spiritual exercises were compounded by St. Ignatius and which is wonderful in the first year of his conversion I may justly call them the chief secret of the Society the fountain from whence they suck the Spirit of God and the channel by which they derive the same Spirit into others Ludovicus Strado of the holy Order of St. Bernard had tryed the spiritual exercises and he called them Tyrocinium totius mundi the Noviciate of all the world because in them every one may learn to steer the whole course of his life to perfection according to each ones several calling And Augustine Carnajal of the Order of St. Augustine after having laboured in the West Indies after having undergone with commendation divers Offices in Spain after having visited the Monasteries of his Order in Italy by the authority of his Holynesse at length in the Monastery of St. James in Bononia made for the space of a moneth the spiritual Exercises in the year 1601 and he gave this testimony of them That from the time he was first a Religious man he had alwaies wished to find out a way by which he might walk straight to perfection and that now at length in these spiritual Exercises he had found out that way Lastly that great Master of Spirit great preacher and great contemplative Lewis of Granada of the Order of St. Dominick speaketh of these spiritual Exercises thus So much spiritual Doctrine did I learn in those Exercises and Documents that my whole life can not suffice to write what there God shewed me Thus do these great men speak and this I may presume to add that what skill soever the Society hath in helping souls what dexterity soever they shew in discretion of spirits what zeal soever they burn with for the good of their neighbour all that they owe to these Exercises which form in them the true Spirit of the Society enlighten their mindes and inflame their hearts It is not therefore without great reason that they retire themselves every year to make these Exercises nor can they be condemned if they commend that to others which they find so beneficial to themselves Many do retire themselves to the Colledges of the Society to make these spiritual exercises and none ever repented himself of his pains but all ever acknowledged that the fruit which by this means redounds to their soul is greater then they ever could expect or can express The seventh employment which the Society undertakes for the good of their neighbour is to help in Hospitals comfort
in other things he left him free to use the help of others when he should think fit And in effect those Wonderfull conversions of so many Nations as he became Apostle of are the fruits of Catechisme Nor is it to be wondred that the Society sets so much by teaching the Catechisme 'T is the Doctrine of Christ that which the Son of God taught with word with example with Signs and Prodigies 'T is the way to eternal Life and as they call it in the West Indies the science of Heaven the only knowledge necessary to Salvation 'T is the study which most imports the World for those that now are children will within a few years be masters of all the World if therefore they be well instructed now you may hope of good plants good trees and good fruit of good seed on the contrary neglect these Children now and you shall soon have an unruly licentious and savage Nation For these reasons and many others the society saith with Christ Mark 10.14 Sinite parvulos venire ad me let little ones come to me and maketh this the first of her cares to instruct little ones and ignorant people in the Christian Doctrine With what success they perform this I had rather you should hear from an Extern then from one of the society Laurence Beyerlinke then a Canon of Antwerp that died not very long since a man of great Learning as his books testifie writeth thus in Theat vitae Humanae Tom. 2. lib. C. In our age among all that profess Religion those of the society of Jesus do with great diligence and great fruit apply themselves to catechising youth If there were nothing else this might make them commendable to all that with so great zeal and so exact a method they do a thing so advantageous to the Church of God It seemeth to be the proper function of the Jesuits to which they all set themselves endeavouring so to form the minds of little ones that they may suck Christian piety with their milk By this means it happeneth that in the Towns where the society resides you shall see the Children mannerly and devout and able to discourse of those things which in other places the elder are ignorant of Nor do the Jesuits take this pains with the children of the rich only but even with the poorest Tradesmen even with almesmen and beggars All these they instruct whensoever on Festival dayes they can get them together Nor do they stop within the Walls of Cities but make excursions abroad to those Parishes where Pastours are wanting to their duty According to the Apostle they become all to all and accomodate themselves to the manners of all to teach all In Antwerp alone you shall see sometimes thirty Fathers and more employed in this pious work The next imployment following the course of mans age is the teaching Humanity that is the Latine and Greek tongues in several Classes or Schools of Grammar Syntax Poetry and Rhetorick In these they endeavour to educate Youth to learning so as all along to instill piety This is a thing which the Society hath alwaies practised from her first institution and that as Greg. 13. saith in his Bull Aedificandi by divine vocation In every Colledge of the Society you have five or six Masters employ'd in teaching these lower schools What labour and toyle these men must devoure you may easily guesse if You reflect what it is for a man that hath otherwise good talents to consume his age with children How many impertinencies must he strive with that is content to be confind to the company of little one He must spur on one bridle another bear with the rudeness of this wink at the passion of that controul the malepertnesse of t'other and study the humors of all to win all to vertue and learning A great labour and if it were not undertaken for Gods sake I should call it intollerable But since it doth advantage the good of Souls so much it is embraced by all the Society with a great deal of fervour without pretending any gain or being capable of receiving any salary for their pains but only what God hath laid up in the other World for those that labour in his Vineyard Twenty two Years Turcelline taught these lower schools Cerda 30. and John Boniface 40 years together and very many have and do spend all their dayes in teaching little children The Society hath only the labour others reap the fruit In these schools are formed those who afterwards become Religious in Cloysters Preachers in Pulpits Pastours in Churches Captains in Armies Judges in Courts All the Cities wherein the Society is see this so well that generally the chief motive why they desire Colledges is that their children may be taught that piety and learning which may make them fit to manage greater affairs afterward The number of their schollars as Contern guesseth was in the year 1618 one hundred and fifty thousand another since hath counted them to be above two hundred thousand Another in his book de Instit. Christ pueritiae saith that if the Society had been from the beginning founded for this alone to teach youth and did only this one thing yet would this alone give the Society credit and splendour enough and administer to them in teaching matter enough of of vertue and to the whole World of profit The third employment wherein the Society endeavoureth to help their neighbour is to go on in Doctrinal matters teaching the higher schools as Philosophy Mathematicks and the several parts of Divinity both positive and speculative These studies commend themselves enough by their name and nature For Mathematick besides the profit is the pleasantest of all studies Philosophy serves for nothing else then to strengthen reason and discusse nature Divinity is the bulwark of the Church and School of Faith In these studies the Society laboureth to perfect men in the best part of nature that is reason and Christians in the knowledg of supernatural things that they may be secure in the wayes both of time and eternity I need not say any thing of the successe which the society hath had in these and in their other studies I will only use the words of Christ John 10.38 Operibus credite believe their works Look on their innumerable learned works look on the several sciences illustrated by them look on the Catalogue of the books made by the Society in the first hundred years which Catalogue makes a compleat Tome and let their works speak for them I know some have carped at some of their works but withall I know the repute which the Society hath got in all manner of learning is such that I appeal to the judgment of their adversaries and desire no commendation but what they do give them The fourth employment is preaching and explicating holy Scripture in the Pulpit for the edification of the people This is that function to which all other sciences serve the end and terme
AN ACCOUNT Of the JESUITES LIFE AND DOCTRINE By M. G. Printed in the Year 1661. THE PREFACE to the Reader THough the Progress of affairs in our late revolutions might have made every one plainly perceive whence the distempers of our times proceeded yet many will needs conceive or pretend they conceive that the Papists were occasion of all our disorders and the Jesuits the Boutefeu's in the ruine of both King and Country What misery the misinterpreting the Bible hath brought upon our Nation by a swarme of Sects that Libels lay to Catholicks the only Religion that constantly none excepted followed the Royall party Priests and Jesuits are said to be the cause of all those mischiefs of which the whole World know's Sectaries were the true Source their restless Spirits never being content till having pryed on both Crown and Mitre at length they worried one another Yet 't is the stile of our times to lay all to the Papists and no Man concludes with applause but he that Perorat's against the Jesuits Pamphlets are the Vulgar Oracles and Libels the guide of those that pretended to believe nothing but Bible It is a strange thing to see what Character is commonly given the Jesuits Every Jesuit say our Pamphlets and Pulpits too hath a Pope in his belly a Macchiavel in his head Mercuries wings on his feet and the Mysterious feather of Lucian's cocks tail in his hand The Pope in his belly makes him still big with malice still giving birth to some new mischief Macchiavel in his head Orders all so dexterously as to make him out reach all the World Mercurie's wings on his feet carry him from place to place from Country to Country and make him every where in a trice The Cocks feather in his hand opens all closets and Cofers and Secrets and discovers to the Jesuit the Want and Wealth of every one that he may know where to place his labours with thrift And if you ask why the Jesuits are never discovered in these pranks the Libels tell you it is because the Jesuits have Proteus's bodies and transforme themselves into all shapes Now a Cobler now a Preacher now a Tinker now a Courtier now a Peasan now a States-man and what not And this still with Gyges's ring on their finger that they may never be seen but when they list By this means it comes to pass that the Jesuits can seldom or never be charged in particular with any misdemeanour yet it is certain credite posteri that they are the only contrivers of all the mischiefs in the World If the Covenant be in vogue none but Jesuits and Jesuited Papists resist it If the same covenant be condemned to deserved flames 't was the Jesuits made it no body else could have dreamt of so much malice If the King be cryed down in Pulpits and Tubs for leavying an unnatural war against his dutifull Subjects as our late Soveraign of glorious memory was 't was the Papists did all and the Jesuits were the Incendiaries If three Kingdomes groan under the Tyranny of Cromwel there were 500 Jesuits in his Army What more Every crime is theirs The Jesuits are to our Fabulous heads what the Evil Genius's or Pestiferous Gods were to old time when fictions made Deities They are Presbyterians and Episcopal Protestants and Levellers and Quakers and what you will provided it be for that time a name of disgrace They have overthrown learning destroyed Philosophy poysoned States corrupted manners betrayed Kingdoms subverted the Church coufounded the Gospel and as with the dregs of Pandora's box poured out more mischief on the World then all the Devils in Hell could ever have wished Thus say the Libels and why may not Libellers take the Liberty to speak as largely in Prose as Poets do in verse specially when they are backed from the Pulpits and warmed with the zeal of the good old cause But fair and softly Is any thing of all this true 't is printed Where there be a thousand books in Paul's Church-yard that affirm all this and more then this And is that enough How many books where there sold in that place and all England over in which his late Sacred Majesty was made the cause of all our misfortunes How many against the Bishops How many against his Royal Majesty that now reigneth Nay who is there of any merit in England living or dead in our memory whom Libels do not seek to defame If it were enough to be accused no body would be innocent 't is a trade now a dayes to write slanders for a lively-hood Many crimes are laid to the Jesuits but the Jesuits deny them all And whosoever will judge right must hear both sides and then give his verdict Till this be done an argument of the Jesuits innocency is that they challenge their Adversaries to appear and speak to the particulars and profer that they will be content to be cast if they be proved nocent On the contrary an argument of errour in those that inveigh against the Jesuits is that they make it their first care to disguise themselves they speak behind the curtain and rove in generall propositions crying out against all without being able to instance in any I do not hope to stop the Torrent of Slandering tongues the floud of a foul mouth is too impetuous to be ever dammed up in this World yet I hope that I shall be able to vindicate the Society so far as that though fools still babble yet wise men shall see they have no reason and though malitious men still envy yet all charitable Christians shall plainly perceive that the fault lyes on their side that reprehend Vertue and carp at learning and impugne that which they do not or will not understand The means which I intend to take for to do this is nothing else then to give a plain and true account of the Jesuits Life and Doctrine and to set down clearly what is objected against the Jesuits and what they answer for themselves This I hope will satisfie for I conceive it very true which Henry the 4th King of France usually said That to know the Jesuits is enough for to make any body love them I hope it may happen to those protestants that read this short treatise as Adam Conizen relates that it happened to divers Ministers in Germany who when they had bought the Constitutions and Rules of the Society at Franckfurt fair which had been taken in some Colledge they read them over with a great deal of eagernesse and after all pronounced this sentence of them That there was nothing there that could be reprehended save only the Roman Religion And perhaps some will joyn with that great wit Sr. Francis Bacon once Chancellour of England who in his Advancement of Learning speaketh thus of the Jesuits When I consider their pains and diligence as well in the culture of learning as information of manners the saying of Agesilaus touuhing Pharnabarus comes into my mind Talis cum
now declare In the Constitutions then the first care is that none be admitted into the Society who are not of such capacity and disposition that it may justly be hoped that in processe of time they will by Gods grace arrive to such a proportion of learning and vertue as to become fit to deal with their neighbour for the good of Souls Upon this account divers are excluded not onely for want of health or other abilities but also for such impediments as may give ground to fear the event For example those who have been in the world notorious for hainous crimes or infamous lives are excluded the Society unless they first blot out their ignomy by long and serious penance Because it is not likely that they will have authority sufficient to handle the Gospel who cannot be seen in the Pulpit without memory of their disgrace Others again are excluded because of their violent and refractory natures and uncouth dispositions because though their abilities promise very much yet it cannot be hoped that in the many and various actions in which the Society must imploy them they will keep a constant tenour of vertue and never lash out into the exorbitances into which nature doth seem to precipitate them Again they who have deserted any religious Order of which they have once worn the habit though but in their novitiate are excluded the Society their former inconstancy prognosticating a future danger Now if any that hath no impediment demand to be admitted into the Society he is asked whether any of the Society ever perswaded him to this vocation and if it be found that any Jesuit perswaded him then he is not admitted but turned back to a new deliberation For though it be not an ill act to perswade another whom we judge fit to any determinate good course of life yet St. Ignatius desired that the Vocation of all that should ever be admitted into the Society should proceed wholly from God and not from man These cautions are used in the admission of any to the Society When once they are admitted they are after a general confession of their passed life trained up to a subduing of their passions renouncing themselves union with God and a perfect indifference that they may be ready to embrace any employment in any place where it shall seem most for the good of Souls to imploy them to the greater Glory of God The time of their probation which in other Orders is but one year in the Society is of two years before their Studies and one year more after their Studies are ended In the first two years they are often tould all the hardship they are to expect shewed the Rule and accustomed to the mentall and vocal player examens spiritual Lectures and the mortifications which they are daily to practise during their whole life that if they find not in themselves Strength and resolution to go on they may go away in Peace and take what other course they think best But if they continue their good desires and give satisfaction then at the end of two years they are admitted to the ordinary vowes of Religious orders which are perpetual Poverty Chastity and Obedience The exercises in which the Novices are practised in and tryed by are serving in Hospitals tending the sick waiting at Table helping the Cook and other menial Officers going in Pilgrimage begging almes from door to door and the like All which being humble actions practise a Man in the mystery of himself subdue pride and self love and acquaint the Soul with the Cross of Christ These actions St. Ignatius would have all tryed in from the very beginning and these all must and all do daily practise in the Houses of the Society none at all exempt but such as sickness exempteth This difference only there is betwixt Novices and Antient Fathers that the Novices have more time for humble exercises as being to get good habits by frequent practise The Antient Fathers unless the necessity of their Neighbour do otherwise require are employed in these exercises only so far as to keep up the primitive Vigour of humility and withall not to take up too much time from their studies or other employments Yet all are practised all their life in humble actions as sweeping the house making their beds serving at Table and the like mean employments I conceive that many when they read this will admire what it means They have conceived Idea's of Jesuits so distant from these actions that they will stand amazed and either not believe that these things are true or if they believe that I say true as I am certain that I do they will despise the Jesuits for them as deeming these actions far below them whom they conceive to be the great Masters of the World But to these I answer that they know not the Grand secret of Christs School Perfection is an admirable Fabrick which reaches as high as Heaven but unless it be built on a profound Renunciation of ones self 't is a Vanity 't is Hypocrisie 't is an empty shadow a lye not perfection He that will follow me saith Christ Mat. 16. must renounce himself Easie words in reading but in action the hardest in the World as which contain the whole Enignia of Christian perfection and all the wonders of Religion If you will know the great mystery of Jesuitisme of which so much hath been falsely blazed in lying Pamphlets I will tell it you in a word The mystery of Jesuitisme consisteth in making humble and able men Here is the secret These small actions these contemptible actions these despicable actions practised by Men of good parts for no other reason then for to renounce themselves in imitation of Christ are the great Engins which raise them to the heighth of Perfection We may reckon many great Men of the Society of Jesus who have done great things and carrying the Gospel to the bounds of the Eaâ—th have converted many Nations but where did they lay the foundation of their greatness it was in exercising humility in abnegation of themselves in embracing the Cross of Christ which is the science of Saints If this seem strange and unintelligible I must confess that it is so indeed to those that seek Vanity and Worldly Wisdome Quia abscondisti haec a sapientibus prudentibus revelasti ea Parvulis Mat. 11.25 God hath hid these things from the wise and sage of the World revealed them to little ones This practise therefore of renouncing our selves St. Ignatius would have the continual exercise of all his And least humility through want of a sure guide might swarm from the true path of Charity he ordained that all the exercises done in the time of Probation and all the employments afterwards should be squared out by obedience By this Obedience every one renouncing his own will and understanding becomes capable of being employed when where and how the Society shall judge fittest for the greater Honour of
the sick relieve the poor and imprisoned persons first for their spiritual then for their corporal assistance also Those that know the Society and are acquainted with their Colledges and Houses can tell you how assiduous the Jesuites are in these kinds of charities If there be an Hospital in any Town where the Jesuites reside they alwaies depute some of their Colledges to assist the sick there for to catechise and instruct them for to administer the sacraments to them for to beg almes if need require up and down the town for them and when servants are wanting for to tend the sick sweep the chambers make their beds provide them necessaries In like manner where there is a prison they go very often to comfort those poor souls to encourage and assist them if they be condemned to a good christian death or if their crimes be not capital to aid them in what they can so to win them to serious repentance and amendment of their life As for other poor sick and distressed persons they seek them up and down in their streets and houses counting it a fault if any suffer whom they can relieve This is yet more admirable in the time of contagious Diseases and Plagues Whensoever that happeneth in any place where the Society is presently a proportionable number of Fathers are exposed for the assistance of the infected these Fathers are chosen out of those who voluntarily offer themselves a sacrifice to God for the Good of their Neighbour For it is the custome of the Society that when there is any great occasion of a hard duty for the good of Souls the Rector or Superior calleth all his Subjects together and acquainting them with the urgent necessity desireth them first to commend the matter to God and then that those who find in themselves a desire to be exposed and are ready to lay down their life for their Neighbour should after a convenient deliberation acquaint him with their resolution Out of those then that offer themselves the Superiour chooseth whom he thinketh fit and these commonly are very able men for the Superiour cannot think it fit to expose novices or imperfect persons to so great danger This is what was practiced in the beginning of the Society and thanks be to God this practice is as much in vigour at this day as ever it was None even of the enemies of the society can say that in the towns where the Jesuits live either prisons or Hospitals or poor or infected persons are neglected by them Though notwithstanding this practise costs the Society the loss of many brave and gallant Men. In Gant in the year 1633 the Dutch Colledge lost in four moneths ten who successively exposed themselves to help the infected of the plague all of them very able Men. At Berges neer Dunkerke they lost five on the same account in three moneths In the year 1649 in a contagious feaver at Rome besides divers others the General of the Society F. Vincent Caraffa assisting the sick contracted the disease and died And to come home here in London in the last great plague three of the Society were exposed to the assistance of those that were infected One of them was F. Henry Mors who got the infection but recovered and was afterward in the time of the long Parliament executed at Tyburn for a Priest and Jesuit So God disposed that his charitable labours should at length be crowned with a glorious death I conceive the Reader will be no little astonished at this Superlative charity A charity so great that none would dare to command it did not very Zealous Men Voluntarily offer it and even beg to be admitted to it To adventure ones life for to assist poor Miscreants that can not render you thanks to run into loathsome prisons and stinking Hospitals to attend Ulcerous and nasty sicknesses to embrace those that have the plague and all this for no other fee but only the conscience of doing a good work pleasing to God and profitable to our Neighbour is a charity so transcendent that I should fear that none would believe it had I not all the Nations abroad for witnesses of what I say and every Town wherein there is a Colledge of the Society to attest the truth of it The eighth employment which the Society undertaketh for their neighbour is that which is called Mission All that I have hitherto said is practised within the bosome of the Catholick church This extendeth it self to the furthest bounds of the Earth to Pagans and Heathens and seeking wayes to dilate the knowledge of Christ undergoeth besides all the labours already mentioned a perpetual banishment from friends from country from all the comforts of life These Missions were begun by S. Francis Xaverius who at the instance of John the Third King of Portugal was sent into the East Indies And admirable man whose zeal surmounted the flames of the torrid zone whose conquering mind overcame the untamed Ocean whose vast charity was of a larger circumference then the whole universe Danger was his delight labour his solace and death his prize If I should tell you what he hath done for the church of of God I must name all the chief countries and towns of the East for all of them he illustrated with the light of the Gospel The Son doth not make so great a change in the World when it draws it out of the shade wherein night had buried it as this gallant soul did in all the East which he drew out of the Egyptian darkness of infidelity to the admirable light of Christianity After this great Apostles example many thousand of the Society have gone and do daily go to spread the Gospel of Christ in all the Quarters of the World To East and West India China Japony Brasile Paraquaria Canada Peru Mexico Chili Abassia Congo Mauritania Monomotapa and in a word to the known Nations of the unknown World So that the Society may without vanity say Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris If the Society heareth of a way opened into any country of the World where Christ is not known presently they offer themselves to go thither They know they are to pass through cruell and merciless seas to more cruell and merciless Nations They know they are to travers vast woods and desarts full of Lions and Tigers to find out a people more savage then those Beasts They know they are to climbe over Mountains of Snow and Ice to find out men colder then ice all frozen in impiety all this they know and they weigh all the labour and danger they must endure yet nothing can stop them Never was there yet labour or danger found so great but that the Society through the assistance of God found greater minds to encounter and overcome those labours and dangers wheresoever the good of souls did require their help This is a truth manifest to all this habitable World there being no country known
a Confessarius must not flatter his penitent he must urge restitution of goods and fame he must be satisfied that the purpose of amendment is real he must see the contrition be hearty and sincere These are no pleasing actions and many finding the Society more rigorous then they could wish fling off and call the Jesuites scrupulous and Puritant-papists though the Jesuites and the Puritans be antipodes in all their life and maximes The third reason is the nature of humane frailty considered as well in the Jesuites as in those that oppose and calumny them On the the Jesuites part it is humane frailty that now and then some of them fall into errors and perhaps scandals too This is the condition of man that none can live quite blamelesse and in a great number of never so perfect men some will be imperfect In so many hundred masters as dayly teach schools in the Society some will swerve from their rule and either through indiscretion or passion commit faults which may justly be censured The like is of the other imployments of preaching catechising missions and the rest which I have numbred in the precedent chapter all which being hard imployments and requiring a solid renunciation of ones self for to be constantly performed well it must be expected that some will falter and having set their hand to the plough look back Now whereas when any of these things happen all prudent men ought to compassionate humane infirmity and by good counsel and advice endeavour to take away the fault or at least the Scandal for the most part it happeneth quite contrary through the frailty to call it no otherwise of those that oppose the Society If one Jesuit among a hundred have erred presently they magnify the fault and multiply it too and clap it on all Jesuites as a property of their vocation For example if they see a Jesuit exceed in cholar presently these Calumniatours comment on that fault and first conclude that that man is haughty and proud then that all Jesuites are arrogant and insufferable men and so they set the calumny about which runs through the whole nation still growing by the way till at length the multitude takes the noise for an argument and rests fully convinced every one being well contented to believe ill of others This is what I have very often observed to have happened to the Jesuites a little fault of one mans frailty paraphrased by malevolent glossers hath often made a great noise and when the matter hath been sifted the source of all has been at most a peccadilio an oversight a chance Now if it happen that some Jesuit committ a great fault against the precepts of God or leave his vocation presently that is rung out in a full peal and all the Jesuites in the World must be lashed by every mans tongue for the fault which one committed though all the rest were against the delinquent and more sensible of his fault then they would be of any humane losse or even of death it self God be thanked such scandals happen but very seldome and perhaps that 's one reason why the faults of the Jesuites make so much noise because they happen seldom Howsoever the Jesuits have reason to relent this unjust proceeding of their adversaries which is both unchristian and unrational Unchristian because it is against all the rules of charity unrational because very illogically these men draw a general conclusion out of particular premises All lewd Women must not be concluded Saints because St. Mary Magdalen was so nor all the Apostles Traytours because Judas was so The Jesuits for the most part are vertuous and able men if some times they err they desire a charitable interpreter not a sower Critick Veniam petimusque damusque vicissim The fourth reason is the condition of the Jesuits life which on the one side is publick in the view of all the World and on the other side hath not that exteriour rigour which may bespeak veneration by a kind of looks of Vertue or countenance of mortification which takes the multitude that is not able to see into the inside of Vertues Other religious orders are immured up in Cloisters where if they commit any fault it is covered in silence and solitude A rough rigid habit gets reverence to some perpetual fasts give fame to others others are credited by great austerity Others by daily begging of almes make their poverty and contempt of the World known and esteemed All do laudably nor do I cite their example to tax them but to commend them whom the Society looketh at as their elder brothers All that I say is that the Society hath none of those things which may serve for a sconce to others if they fall A Jesuit that is a Master or Preacher or Missionant cannot err but that he must have as many Witnesses of his errour as there are men that he dealeth with The life and habit of a Jesuit hath nothing that speaks Rigour 't is a common life such as may beseem poor Clergy Men that are tyed to continual labour as it hath nothing of superfluity so it wanteth nothing that is necessary This the Vulgar understand not but easily interpret amiss I believe if I should describe the rigid life of the Charter-house Moncks in perpetuall silence perpetual solitude perpetual fast and praer there would be found many hair-brain'd men who would presently cry The Devil is in these men And the same Men if they should be told all the Jesuits life would presently cry that They had an easie life a merry life alwayes fall of Good cheer These men may have the comfort that they are not the first Fools of the World there were as very fools as they a long time ago Christ our Saviour tells us so Mat. 11.18 Venit Joannes neque manducans neque bibens dicunt demonium habet venit Filius hominis manducans bibens dicunt ecce homo vorax potator vini John came neither eating nor drinking that is with extream Rigour of fast and they say of him he hath the Devil in him On the other side The Son of Man comes eating and drinking that is leading a common life not refusing a necessary diet and they say he is a devourer and a Wine-bibber So doth the multitude usually misinterpret vertue and like ill Schollars alwayes construe wrong Nor is it only the multitude some for that must be said too some I say even among Priests and Religious men reprehend the life of the Society They are startled to see the common life of the Jesuits and like St. Johns Disciples they ask Math. 9.14 Quare nos Pharisaei jejunamus frequenter discipuli autem tui non jejundnt Why do we and the Pharisees fast often but your Disciples fast not They have set themselves a method of life and a way of Rigour which is laudable but that which is not laudable is that when they see the Society go another
all the Clengy The whole annual rent of a Colledge which keepeth about twenty Jesuits to teach and preach is not usually so great as what oftentimes one Canon possesseth All the Colledges in a Province Flanders for example are not worth the Revenues of one Monastery I can assure you this that there are but few Colledges so well rented in all Europe as to have yearly twenty pound a Man for every Religious person that they maintain Yet out of this twenty pound a Man is to be defalked the expenses of the Church the expenses of the Fabrike the expenses of Strangers either of the society who come that way or of secular Men who upon occasions retire themselves to the Colledges for to make the spiritual exercise All which expenses deducted the remainder is not so great but that in effect the Fathers need daily almes for to buy their bread almost in all the Colledges of Europe But that which Malevolent men lay hold of to make ignorant people believe the Jesuites are rich is that they see the Jesuites Churches splendid and richly furnisht and their schools and halls for publick exercises magnificently built This they take for riches and they do not consider that these works argue the devotion and magnificence of the Founders not the riches of the Jesuites Churches are great for the concurse of many that there serve God and schools are large to receive many Schollars 'T is the good of the Town that good schools be built it maketh not the Master one penny the richer nor is it any comfort to him to pass out of a large school through a fair Hall built for publick exercises of learning to a poor garret there to spend the rest of his time in Solitude Silence Prayer and Study An avaritious man cannot center here though a religious Spirit finds more solace in the bare walls of a narrow cell then in the specious magnificence of stately buildings Another reason why the Jesuites are commonly thought rich is because generally every one of them is sufficiently provided of necessaries Yet this proceedeth not from any other riches then the Treasure of charity It is the rule and practise of the Society that amongst them every one must be equally provided of necessaries what is their's is common to all They have no Abbots who have their quota a part for to keep State and publick Hospitality as some other Religious very laudably do Their Rectours eat and drink no better then their Porters and Cooks do all out of the same pot and at the same Table This equal division makes that their Almes and Revenues being equally shared amongst all none abound nor none want or if they do 't is when all want Believe not me in this believe those that have lived as many Gentlemen in England have done in the seminaries and convicts of the Society they can tell you that all Jesuites fare and lodge alike all are clad alike all equally attended in health and sicknesse There is no difference save only the respect due to age and superiority The third objection is that the Jesuites are ambitious but what are they ambitious of If a hard mission be to be undergone if Prisons and Hospitals be to be visited if any be to be exposed to contagions or pestilences then thanks be to God the superiours find them all ambitious of such employments But for Titles and Honours they are so far from aspiring to them that I think no community in the World can better plead Not guilty then they All that are professed in the Society make this vow Promitto nunquamme acturum vel praetensurum ne indirectè quidem ut in aliquam praelationem vel dignitatem eligar vel promovear I promise that I will never procure or pretend not so much as indirectly to be chosen into any dignity or prelacy This vow they make to exclude all ambition of dignities or preferments within the society Now for other Titles out of the Society as of Bishop or Cardinal and the like they Vow thus Promitto praeterea nunquam me curaturum praetensutumve extrasocietatem praelationem aliquam vel dignitatem nec consensurum in mei electionem quantum in me fuerit nisi coactum obedientiâ ejus qui mibi praecipere potest sub paenâ peccati I promise besides that I will never procure or pretend unto any dignity or Prelacy out of the Society and that as much as lyeth in me I will not consent to my Election unless I be forced by obedience of him who can command me under pain of sin If they who make this vow and keep it most exactly as the society hath ever done must be called ambitious what shall we say of those that desire and procure Dignities and Prelacies I would fain see those that tax the society of ambition lay their hands on their breast and make the same vows which the Jesuites do If they refuse that and yet would not be judged ambitious though they pretend as they say to prefer themselves by Legal wayes let them change their sentence and give a milder censure of the society Certainly the Jesuites have had many able men who have been Confessours and Preachers to Kings Princes and Popes and by that means they have had a fair door open to honour Nay many times honours have been thrust upon them but their resolution and only their resolution to avoid all honours hath kept them off Some few of the Society have been raised to Ecclesiasticall dignities but it is known that thay accepted not those dignities but by force and so kept the rigour of their vow All this makes it clear that this Objection is wholly groundlesse The fourth objection that the Jesuites are nice and lead a lazie and delicate life This objection is answered in the end of the precedent chapter and it needeth no further refutal then the bare rehearsal of the employments wherein the Jesuites are busied How can any man judge them lazie who embrace so many employments of such fatigue for the publick good How can they be judged nice who spend a great part of their life in schools and never refuse to go to Hospitals and Prisons and treat with beggars for the good of their souls But the Jesuites have a decent habit and by their rule have a great care of cleanliness in their house in their chamber and Refectory and above all in their Church this they who will nick-name all vertue call nicety as the order they keep in their Schools to avoid confusion and ease their labour they call Laziness and with their good leave I call their whole objection sottishness The fist Objection Jesuites are dangerous men because they meddle in intrigues of State and thrust themselves into Court affairs I answer that if ever any Jesuit doth do so he transgresseth his rule and committeth a grievous sin against an express precept of obedience which is set down in these very words in their Constitutions under the
Thomas St. Anthoninus Cajetan c. of the Franciscans St. Bonaventure Johannes de Capistrano Pelagius Alvarius Alexander Ales c. of Carmelites Waldensis and Bacon of the Clergy very many Priests and Bishops and Cardinals as Gerson Doctour of Paris c. Of Lawyers Bartolus and Baldus c. These and many more were cited in Shooles for this Doctrine which Barclay rightly calleth the common doctrine of both Canonists and Divines though notwithstanding it is to be observed that none of these nor no Catholick Divine ever gave the pope an Arbitrary power to depose at his list as now some though very falsly presume Their opinions were modifyed so that their books stood in esteem and were not thought to have deserved so ill at princes hands as now some would make them seem All which I do not sry to defend their opinions as good but only as declaring matter of fact I say these and many more were cited in Schools for this doctrine as a common opinion before the Society was in the World as besides what I have said is manestly proved in the Oration which Cardinal Peron made to the 3. Estate in France Whilest then this was the opinion of Schools Beliarmine writ his controversies and in the matter de summo pontifice he taught this doctrine and he took his arguments as he professeth himself in great part out of Sanders a secular priest After Bellarmine partly to vindicate him partly on oother accounts four or five Jesuites more writ of the same matter alledging authours who had writ before them and taking for the most part their reason out of former writers that stood in Libraries and were read without controll in Schooles And this is that which Henry the fourth said that he wassure Jesuites taught nothing in this matter which did differ from other Catholicks But it was not enough for the society to be as wary as others Their doctrine therefore after the death of Henry the fourth their great Protector was highly contradicted specially in France and much noise there was The Jesuits then seeing that this doctrine was Lapis offensionis and bred disgust because they taught it to take away all complaint of the society resolved never to say more of that matter so F. Claudius Aquavaria the fifth General of the Society made a prohibition concerning this matter on the 5th of Jan. 1616. But because that prohibition seemed not efficacious enough to prevent all inconveniences and give the World full satisfaction Father Mutius Vitelleschi the sixth General of the society in the year 1626 on the thirteenth of August made a precept of obedience by which all Jesuites are obliged under pain of damnation never to write dispute teach or print any thing concerning that matter The precept is extant in an Epistle of Father Mutius and from thence inserted as a perpetual precept into the 8th Congregation in fine it runneth thus Ordinamus in virtute sanctae obedientiae ne quis in posterum materiam de potestate summi pontifieis super principes eos deponendi c. tractet aut libris editis aut scriptis quibuscùnque nec publice disputet aut doceat in seholis ut occasiones omnes offensionis querelarum praecidantur This is the precept which hath now stood this 35 years and never was infringed by any one fince the year 26 nothing hath been said of this question in schools or sermons or publick discourses nothing hath been printed of it in the society This care the society hath had to avoid all offensive questions And truly I conceive it were much to be desired that all other Divines as well Protestants as Catholicks were obliged in the same manner to perpetuall silence in these matters But whilst the society hath used this caution others have not done so They taught it before the society was in the World and some continue it still All this makes me reflect on the proceeding of those who love to revile the society right or wrong certainly if these mens zeal were for his Majesties safety as they pretend they would never have picked out the Jesuits amongst all others to blame for this doctrine they would have endeavoured to have rooted it out where it is main tained not where it is already silenced and banished the schools They might have found Doctrine more capable of their invectives which concerneth our times and our Nation neerer For example the Author of the Reflections on the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance telleth us page the 67th that in Spain Schools are connived at still in teaching this doctrine of the popes temporal power If this be true why doth he not cite these schools are they Monks are they Fryars are they Clergy men for I am sure they are not Jesuits But his resolution to make the Jesuits odious will not give him leave to name any body else Again whilst these men would banish all the Jesuites out of England because some Jesuites did fourty or fifty years ago teach that doctrine why do they not cry out of such English men as lately have writ the same doctrine and more too I will not cite them as not willing to propagate any of this kind of Doctrine though it be but in a citation But certainly they might have been taken notice of by any that did really intend rather to root out such kind of Doctrine then to impugne the Jesuites The fourth Objection against the Jesuites Doctrine is that they teach the killing of Kings though under the name of Tyrants So Mariana a Spanish Jesuit teacheth and therefore ha◠his books burnt at Paris I answer that Mariana did in the year 1599. print a book entituled De Rege et Regis institutione which he dedicated to Philip the second King of Spain In this book he did teach a doctrine after Dominicus Soto l. 5. de jure Justicia q. 1. a. 3. contrary to the judgment of the society of killing not Kings but of Tyrants which doctrine the society condemned and forbid and the other Doctours of the society all unanimously impugned it That you may know the truth I must do as in the last Objection that is give you a narrative of the passage When then the General of the society Claudius Aquaviva understood that Mariana had put out an opinion of so dangerous consequence he writ to the fathers of the society in France who had acquainted him with the whole matter in these words as Father Coton sets them down in a Letter to the Queen Regent of France We have been very sorry that no body percieved the fault untill the books were printed the which notwithstanding we have presently commanded to be corrected and will use great care hereafter that such things happen no more This passed in the year 1606. four years before the Sorbon condemned Mariana's book which was Anno Domini 1610. July 4. According to this the General of the society did give order for the correcting that place and
God Furthermore because for the disposing of every one right it is not enough that they be perfectly obedient but it is also required that the Society do know every one therefore doth St. Ignatius further order that every one should entirely open his interiour and all the good and bad of his heart to his superiour that so every one may be guided and disposed of in the best manner These are the chief means which the Society useth in order to attain Vertue For the rest their life as to dyet Lodging Apparel is such as beseems poor Clergy Men there being nothing of Superfluity allowed and nothing denyed that is necessary As for fasts and other corporal austerities there is nothing determined in the rule only this that every one shall use such penance as his superiour or Spiritual Father considering his health and employments shall judge most for his advancement in Spirit How this point is practised in the Society we may judge by reading the acts of those eminent men whose lives are writ As for those that are living this is true that the number of those who by Labour and Austerity do notably impair their Health is very great which argueth that they rather need a Bridle then a Spur. All this then the Society doth in order to bring up her Subjects to Solid Vertue There are yet two things more which do mainly conduce to conserve the whole body of the Society in Vigour The first is the power of dismission a thing which many carp at yet which is extreamly advantageous to conserve the society St. Ignatius therefore reflecting that in a great number of Men though chosen with all the care and educated with all the diligence that humane frailty can use divers would in length of time through weariness of labour or want of fervour or some of the innumerable tentations to which mans life is continually exposed become not only useless to the Society but also noxious and perhaps scandalous too reflecting on all this I say St. Ignatius did institute his order so that the vowes of Religion which are made at the end of the two years probation should remain dispensable by the General of the Society They therefore that in process of time are found by their own fault to become unfit to live in the Society are dismissed and freed from their Vowes so that if they be not Priests which usually none are till nine or ten years experience had of them they may marry or take what worldly course they please This they who are dismissed cannot complain of for before they enter they are told of the condition which they undertake and every half year during their Novice-ship they are particularly asked whether they understand this condition and are contented with it So they cannot complain since that maxime is manifest Scienti volenti non fit injuria On the other side it is extreamly necessary for conserving the whole society entire to root out those weeds which if they were let grow would over run the whole Garden of Religion it is necessary to open a Vein and let out the ill blood before the disease master the whole body it is necessary to separate those whose contagion would like a plague infect all Domestick disorder is the intestine Enemy of Religous Houses and the bane that hath ruined all those holy communities which from Fervent and Illustrious beginnings have at length ended in smoak and ashes This disorder came not in on a suddain but by little and little now one then another relaxed a little of their primitive fervour Till at length the number of disorderly Persons overtopping the Vertuous Discipline was laid aside and the rule neglected This sad event the society endeavoureth to forestale by cutting off the rotten members before their number and Example corrupt the rest I know many have objected against this Priviledge of the society but they have alwayes been answered and the power of dismission as often confirmed as it was questioned In particular Greg. 14. in his Bull of the Year 1591. saith Eam potestatem ratam intactam esse volumus tanquam rem magni momenti ad societatis puritatem conservationem retinendam We will have the power of dismission stand Valid and untouched as a thing of great concern for the coservation and purity of the Society Nor can the Clergy or other Religious Orders complain of this for in effect as many not to say more are dismissed out of other Orders proportionably great as out of the society As it was made appear in the seventh Congregation This is the only difference that when other Orders dismiss those who are incorrigible and scandalous amongst them they expell them with the burthen of their Vowes and so they remain Apostata's all their Life The society on the contrary taketh away that burthen of their Vowes from all that are dismissed if they be not professed Now it very seldom happeneth that one who is professed in the society doth deserve expulsion For none are professed in the society till many years ordinarily it is at least 17 or 18 years experience had of them all which time if one both give and receive satisfaction it is very extraordinary that after so long experience he should behave himself so as to deserve expulsion from a Religion in which he hath spent so great a part of his age with content on all sides By this means therefore of expulsion or dismission the society endeavoureth to prevent the mischief which the imperfection of some might in time bring on all choosing rather to part with those from whom she cannot hope any good than to use prisons or corporal chastisements For such severities though laudably used by other Communities rather restrain the body than the mind and oftener make men dissemble their malice than change their manners The other thing which in the Society will by the grace of God conserve the whole order in vigour is the great caution which is used to exclude all manner of ambition of honour and preferments For all that are professed in the Society do make a vow that they will never seek neither by direct or indirect means any superiorities prelacies or dignities nor ever admit of them when they are offered unless they be commanded by those who can oblige them under sin Furthermore they promise to detect any of the society whom they shall know to endeavour directly or indirectly to procure Honours or Dignities And if any be ever found to have prevaricated in this kind then is he made ignominious and deprived of Voice Active and Passive This Vow hath many Advantages for conserving of the true Spirit of the Society For whereas honour is the most specious snare of the World that enchants the mind with most powerfull charmes and proves commonly the bane of greatest Wits and persons the best qualified this Vow excludeth all that mischief by putting such a distance or to use the Scripture Phrase so great
a Chaos betwixt Men of the Society and Honours that they cannot arrive or aim at them without wading through Hell it self It is laudable in other Orders to furnish the Church with so many worthy Prelates as we see they daily do Yet the Society feareth least by furnishing others she should disfurnish her self she feareth opening a Gate to honour least by the same Gate she let in ambition to the dishonour of the whole Order she feareth least those whose vertue and learning do chiefly uphold the credit of the Order and rigour of Discipline might by this means be snatcht from her finally she feareth least any when by humane frailty they should grow weary of labour and relent in fervour should relinquish their vocation and sallyes out by the fair Gate of honour and under pretence of doing the Church publick service serve their own passion On the contrary she hopeth that those who really and heartily renounce all those dignities to which their many gallant parts seem to make a Bridge may do the Church more service by continuing in the humility of their own vocation and by contemning honour than by accepting it Thus then is honour bounded out of the Society with the strongest rampart that can be that is by vow To this we may adde two other things which both aim at the exclusion of all ambition and conserving humility The first is that the Government of the Society is not by chapter and plurality of voices which might cause factions and foster ambition But all Offices are given by the General or if they be inferiour Offices by the Provincial who being informed of the abilities of their several subjects choose whom they think fittest without acquainting any body with their design till the Election be past The other is that in the Society there is a perfect equality between all no man for birth or learning or antiquity or any thing else hath any advantage of place diet cloathing lodging or the like But all share alike and take their turns in the meanest Offices none being exempt All this considered I do not know how it is possible practically speaking to exclude ambition out of any Community more than it is out of the Society These be the chief means by which the Society endeavoureth to educate her subjects to vertue and keep up the primitive vigour of the Order Now for learning which as I said in the beginning of this Chapter was the second thing whereby men of the Society were to be made fit instruments for their end The esteem which St. Ignatius made of learning is sufficiently evidenced in the great labour he took himself in studies as I have already shewed And in the Society he desired to wedde Learning to Vertue so strongly as that they should never be divorced For this reason he ordered that none should be professed of four vows in the Society which is the degree of those that are the chief who had not got to such a pitch in Sciences as that they were by sworn Examiners judged able to teach Philosophy and Divinity with applause Though notwithstanding for avoiding of honours he would not have the fathers of the Society take the title of Doctor but where it should be necessary For the studies of the Society this may be said in general that they embrace no study by which they may not hope to become more serviceable to the Church for the good of their neighbour and they refuse none by which they may hope to become more serviceable In particular they all are taught first humanity if they be not well entered before their admittance Then they study Philosophy and Mathematicks for three years Lastly for the space of four years they study their Divinity and with that they hear a lesson of H. Scripture and another of Hebrew in order to the better understanding of holy writ These are their studies wherein they continue at least seven years during which time they are often practised in preaching that they may get some facility and that every ones talent may be seen And to secure the exorbitance which wits may easily fall into the rule speaketh plain that none must broach new opinions or teach any thing which is not conformable to what the Catholick Church holdeth and approved Authors teach And of this even before their admittance they are warned and not admitted unless they resolve to observe it Which I take notice of to shew how groundless their cavils are who object Novell opinions and exotick Doctrine to the Society whereas no such Doctrine either is or can be tolerated among them After their studies they go to the third year of Probation where they endeavour by frequent Prayer and Meditation to attend wholly to the study and practise of solid Vertue according to the end and institute of the Society re-assuming for that purpose the same experiments wherewith they were tryed in their first Probation or Novice-ship And this is what the Society doth for to make her own Subjects fit for those functions which they are afterwards to undertake for the good of their Neighbours CAP. III. What they of the Society do in order to help their Neighbour for the good of Souls AFter that the Fathers of the Society have ended their studies and Probations and now are by Gods grace furnished with such Talents of learning and Vertue as every one hath been able to arrive unto the first thing that they are to expect is to be prefently set on work and kept in perpetual employment that idleness which St. Ignatius calleth the Origin and root of all evill otium malorum omnium origo may have no place amongst them Now their employments which they undertake for their Neighbour are various The first for I will begin from thence according to the course of Mans age is teaching the Catechisme or Christian Doctrine This employment St. Ignatius esteemed so much that besides commending it with his own example even when he was General of the Society he would also command it and exact that all that were professed of the Society should by a special Vow promise to God to have a peculiar care of teaching the Catechisme Further he ordered that all that were imployed in the Government of the Society should at the entrance of their office Catechise the children and ignorant people for a good number of dayes As St. Ignatius in Europe so St. Francis Xaverius in the East Indies commendded this holy exercise both by example and precept as the most profitable and which he used to call His employment He never let a day slip when possible he could without catechising and he used to go about the streets to call all the children and servants and slaves together to hear the Christian Doctrine When he went to Japony he left Gaspar Barraeus Superiour of the Society in his place and gave him this instruction that he should himself personally Catechise and not commit that charge to any else whereas
to Men where the Society doth not labour for Christ But all this is done with incredible pains Weary journies by sea and Land perpetual drudgery tedious sicknesses without comfort of Doctour or Physick untimely and many times violent death are daily and hourly to be expected by those that will labour to instruct wild Men and Cannibals and manure them to the Faith of Christ And all these troubles and dangers are redoubled by the want of those comforts which Friends and acquaintance and kindred and the civility and plenty of Europe afford So that whosoever goeth into these Missions of the Society must make account that he leapeth into a furnace of perpetual tribulation where he is never to cease labouring and induring for Christ till with his last breath he is sacrificed to Divine love Yet such is the mercy of God that the Society wanteth not men who voluntarily imbrace all this fatigue and willingly offer themselves and beg these Missions These are then the employments of the Society these their functions for I omit the Naval and Camp missions wherein the Society endeavoureth to assist seamen and Souldiers I omit their frequent endeavours to reconcile those that are at Enmity I omit their industry in promoting of Plety by sodalities and other wayes all which may in some sort be guessed at by what I have already said To conclude then this chapter I desire the Reader to reflect on one thing which will much inhance the price of all these actions It is that all this is done gratis The Jesuits do not expect any reward nor can they receive any stipend or recompence for their pains in teaching preaching helping the sick administring Sacraments or any of the charitable functions which they embrace But as they do frankly and freely for the honour of God whatsoever they can do for the good of their Neighbour so they rely on the Providence of God who exciteth devout people to supply their necessity out of pure charity This they do not do as condemning the Clergy and Religious who take Tithes and Stipends for their spiritual functions justly as the church alloweth them but they desire to imitate as neer as they can their Blessed Saviour who though he lived on the almes which devout people gave him yet did freely and without thought of recompence all that his eternal Father ordained him to do By this means on the one side they avoid all semblance of Avarice and simony and on the other side the people whom lucre often times makes nigards to God and strangers to the sacraments are sooner wone to do good when they see it costs them nothing but a good will to make use of the societies labour in schooles in sermons in sacraments and the rest of their spiritual and charitable functions CAP. IV. Whence it comes that the Society is still persecuted and calumnied by many ONe would think that so many charitable actions done purely for love might deserve a reciprocal love and that men who harass themselves with continual toyle for the profit of others should at least reap thanks for their pains and find compassion in their travail not indignation comfort not persecution Yet on the contrary of the society we may say as of the Primitive church notum est nobis quia ubique contradicitur ei we know that every where they are contradicted and persecuted But this opposition is not so generall as it is noysed if the adversaries of the Jesuits be many their friends are also many and they of the abler and better sort of people as evidently appeareth by this that though the Enemies of the society do all that they can possibly to overthrow them yet notwithstanding the Jesuits are still maintained and honoured wheresoever Catholick Religion is allowed Three sorts of Men I observe in England to be adversaries of the society The first and worst of all are some Catholicks who have such a tooth against the Jesuits that they cannot afford them one good word These are unexcusable for since they know the Catholick Church hath approved the institute of the society and they take that Church for their infallible guide they can have no colour for condemning the society They do the society great wrong but themselves far greater specially some of them whose quality is such that they ought to be more exemplar for in effect whilst they endeavour to disgrace the society they defame themselves They must think their Auditours very ignorant in Christian duty if they suppose them such as cannot reflect what sin detraction is Some of these would seem Zealots and they have something that might give them vogue enough if envy and this spirit of detraction did not de-ingrate all the rest These I would desire to meditate on that of St. John Epist 1. c. v. 20. Si quis dixerit quoniam diligo Deum fratrem suum oderit mendax est If any body say I love God and yet hateth his Brother he is a lyar Again I would desire them to reflect on the severe censures which they incur by speaking against the Institute of the Society which is no less then Excommunication ipso facto as appeareth by the Bull of Greg. 13. beginning Ascendente Domino Dated 1584. Where he hath these words Praecipimus in virtute sanctae obedientiae ac sub poenis excommunicationis latae sententiae nec non inhabilitatis ad quaevis officia beneficia saecularia quorumvis ordinum regularia eo ipso absque alia declaratione incurrendis quarum absolutionem nobis successoribus nostris reservamus ne quis cujuscunque status gradus praeeminentiae existat dictae societatis institutum aut constitutiones quovis disputandi vel etiam veritatis indagandae quaesito colore directe vel indirecte impugnare vel eis contradicere audeat We command in vertue of Holy Obedience and under pain of excommunication latae sententiae as also of inability to any office or benefice secular or regular to be incurred without further declaration and from which they cannot be absolved but by us or our successors That no man of what state degree or eminence soever he be dare to impugne or contradict the Institute of the society or constitutions either directly or indirectly under any colour of disputing or searching out of the truth Another sort of men there are who hate the Jesuites becauise they will never reflecting why These are a malevolent sort of men whose lavish tongues vent nothing but censures their zeal is fury their devotion mischief their envious souls are never lodg'd at ease but in the ruine of their Neighbours Root and Branch was the word wherewith they design'd all the Papists long since to destruction Cruel spirits that could rejoyce whilst they warm'd themselves at the fire which consumed their King and Country as though their Govenant had been made with death and destruction Aristides was a gallant man as most that ever Athens saw a great Oratour and great Commander