vanity enough to think to perswade the world that they exceed in vertue all their Predecessors but whatever they say they cannot be believed without new Idea's of their first Fathers 3. Iesus Christ began to do and teach This is the Image of the Society acting and when they write of their continual labours they write In this thou approachest nearer to Christ O Glorious Society which hast produced works of such Grandeur But what could be so horrible as the Idea we should have of this Society if we were perswaded she hath acted and ordered her conduct according to those maximes which her Casuists have written and taught 4. Iesus suffered a shameful death This is the image of the Society suffering but he endured a little more but boasted much less than these men do 5. Iesus Christ through suffering is past into Glory This is the image of the Society triumphant It might be wished these Fathers would not so much seek their Glory of men that they might have a greater share in that of Christ who in the Gospel hath forbidden us to seek our own Glory When the Iesuites compare their Hero's to Alexanders Hercules Poâ—â—ies and Caesars the style is tollerable though very ridiculous 'T is not very rare for men even writers to want judgement and common sense but whatever these good Fathers say they are too well known to be taken for Angels Yet since they lift up their voice to heaven and affect altogether to compare their Society to the Church and themselves to the Apostles and to Jesus Christ whom they look upon as their companion it may do well to advertise the world how dangerous and irregular their passion is which makes them use such extravagant expressions They ought to remember that we cannot draw near to God but by humility and that the way intirely to deâ—ace the small remainder we have of resemblance with him is not to acknowledge our distance from his Grandeur his Holiness and his Goodness and not to lay sufficiently to heart that we are really meer nothings as he is the Soveraign Omnipotent Essence Pride being the first crime that corrupted Angels and Men is also the most deeply rooted in our nature so that there alwayes remains in us an inclination to desire with our first Parents to be like the most High and to make our selves and the things we affect Idols to be set up in the place of God 'T is true that since the light of the Gospâ—l there have not appeared where Christ is adored any persons so impudent to cause themselves to be worshipped as Gods or that durst attribute that honour to any other man But we see a shadow of this disorder in Christendome it self for as soon as it falls out that we have a vertuous friend because we dare not make him a God yet this doth not restrain us from making him a Saint and if we may be believed the greatest in Paradise and if it lye in our power we extol him so high that none but Christ shall be fit to compare with him But this passion more easily spreads in communities and succeeds more happily they cover it with the presence of the Glory of God promoted by publishing holiness which is no where so resplendent as in the Saints They make it their devotion and subject of their zeal to commend the members of the Society One Iesuite thinks he merits by praising another and as that other is of his coat so he agrees in the practice as well as profâ—ssion of the same rule and is his companion his brother and other-self obliged to barter Elegies and make suitable returns for the commendations received But it might have been affirmed that the ambition of these Fathers had proceeded â—urther than themselves could have imagined had they not taken such care to make it appâ—ar with a witness in the proud representation they have made of their company Because there are amongst them some persons reputed holy and learned they would impose on the world to have no other Idea of their Society but that it is composed only of persons no less chaste and bright than the Angels and have not a body but to â—ight and to suffer for Iesus Christ. There is nothing on Earth as they say wherewith to compare this Holy Society but the Church of Christ with this difference that the Church is obliged to continual mourning for the rareness of Vertue among the members thereof and because the wheat is almost all covered with chaff whereas in the Society there is only wheat without any chaff The Church hath this advantage that none can be saved but in her bosome but though all that live there are called to salvation yet few are saved and chosen for heaven And those few who are happy enough to be saved and persevere to the end must do it with much labour and continual combates against their infirmities and imperfections the whole time of their life They confess with St. Paul they see no good thing in themselves that the law of sin from which they are not intirely exempt causes them often to do the ill they would not as the weight of their corruption hinders them to do the good that they would they acknowledge that thoâ—gh they are enlightned with the Faith their light is but small and would be wholly extinct did they not constantly pray to God to increase it that they find themselves often involved in such darkness that they know not what they ought or ought not to do to perform the repentance they owe unto God and the charity they are obliged to pay unto their neighbour Lo here what men the Saints of the Church of Christ are they alwayes walk in humility in fear and in self-denial knowing they must fall when they quit this path but the Church of the Iesuites is all perfect and composed intirely of persons that are perfect there are no children nor imperfect ones amongst them they are all born with helmets on their heads they are all Phâ—â—nixes Heroes and men at arms they have all strength sufficient to conquer and more wisdome is necessary to govern the world Moreover they are all Saints and shall be all saved they have express Revelations which put it out of doubt that for three hundred years and to the end of the world not one of them shall dye in the hâ—bit of a Iesuite who shall not have the gift of perseverance They are no sooner dead but according to their prophecyes Iesus Christ comâ—s to meet them for to conduct them to heaven and make them reign there above all other Religious Orders whereof the most perfect are but as silver whereas by another 〈◊〉 they know that they are the most precious gold Lastly having exhausted all sort of praises and compared themselves to Angels to Prophets to the Apostles the twenty four Elders in the Apocalipse the Pharisees and Emperours having applyed to themselves all they could find in Scripture which might
St. Paul is bolder than we durst have been when to shew how difficult it is for Sinners to return to God after their fall he uses these terms in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 6. It is impossible for those who have been once enlightned and tasted the good word of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost and the power of the life to come if they fall away to renew them again to repentance seeing they crucifie the Son of God afresh And Ch. 10. of the same Ep. v. 26. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin c. The reason why the Apostle made use of those vehement expressions was his belief that he could not implant in Christians too great an Opinion of the difficulty to repent after falling into sin But since it appears that it is the great secret of the Iesuites policy and the design of their Casuists and Confessors to perswade men that there is nothing easier than for the most hardned sinners to re-enter into Grace I assure my self that these modern directors of Conscience who guide men by new lights never read those words of St. Paul which condemn their practices but they say with their Father Adam That this Apostle suffered himself to be transported by the heat of his Nature into strange expressions And if they durst use language suitable to their practices they would accuse all the ancient Fathers as too hard and morose and applaud themselves for enlarging and making plain the wayes of Heaven which from Iesus Christ to their time continued narrow and rugged in a word whereas heretofore it was a rare thing to see a sinner Converted you may now see thousands in their Churches Where there needs not such formality so many tears such â—ighs and groans and so much humiliations as in the Primitive Church The danger is only that God changes not according to their fancies but is as just and as severe as ever But this matters not with them whose design is to make good compositions with sinners and â—ell the blood of Iesus Chriâ—â— cheap that their market may be quicker and yield large returns of profit and advantage by the multitude of their customers The Sinnâ—â— needs no more than tell his Confessor the story of his disorders and he is presently capable of the greatest favours of the Church and cleared of his sins without fear of an after clap When Bishops and Priests were not without difficulty induced to proceed to the reconciliation of Penitents to God for fear of binding themselves in those sins whereof they pretended to loose others whom it may be the Soveraign Judge had not absolved sinners though reconciled continued in fear and humiliation having their sins ever before them and after the practising of all sorts of good works and submission to the rigour of Ecclesiastical Discipline they were still afraid they had not satisfied the Iustice of God And that their sins were not so mortified but that they might recover the dominion of their hearts to their eternal destruction and ceased not to charge themselves with sins of ignorance and infirmity with omissions and neglects But now as if the most hainous crimes were as inconsiderable as the lightest faults and as easily pardoned as the smallest miscarriages as if the maladies of the Soul were not difficult to cure and as if God had for the future for ever remitted the severity of his judgement against sinners from the time they follow the advice of the Iesuites the most wicked of men the most dissolute wretches are no sooner absolved by these complaisant directors but their Consciences are in peace for all their past sins though they are resolved to commit them again These are the persons that make up these vast numbers which fill the Churches of the Jesuites and swell the list of their Confessions They are directors of all those Consciences which love not to hear any but pleasing Doctrines who pretend condescension to mens weaknesses and infirmitiâ—s and never imploy the Knife and the Lance in the cure of their wounds This makes all those who cannot endure sound doctrine but have itching desires to be flattered in their wayes to have recourse to these Prophets of the last times and having shut their ears against the truth are by the just judgement of God given up to be seduced by fables which serve only for their greater seducement and Depravation It may be said to the glory of the Society that they are Guides to an infinite number of persons and with this advantage that whereas St. Paul sayes That not many wise men after the fâ—esh not many mighty not many Noble were called these good Fathers have in their Churches so many persons of greatest quality so many rich so many wise men after the flesh that they have no room for the Common people and ordinary men And have made the wayes of repentance so smooth and easie that the most tender and delicate sinners run thither with as much ardour and facility as they could possibly have done to their sins and disorders If you consider these Fathers as to worldly enjoyments and weigh their condition in the balance of humane opinion they have cause to be intirely satisfied with their Estate in the places where they reign as having all the Grandeur of the World prostrate at their feet but if you view them by the light of Faith nothing will appear so miserable as these blinde Guides who lead the blind and together with them fall into the ditch and abyss of darkness They have reason to fear that God may require at their hands the blood of an infinite number of Souls who for want of repentance dye in their sins whom they abused by hasty absolution and covered their faults instead of curing them 'T is lamentable to observe how sinners are daily confessed by these Ghostly Fathers but never converted to newness of life repenting every moment but never truly drawing nigh to God with their lips but denying him in their hearts becoming Proselytes to these new Phariâ—â—es and thereby more the children of Hell than before T is true they practise not these things alone but this augments rather than excuses their condemnation as having drawn others to follow their courses being tempted to like Actions in hopes of equal success and as many disciples as the Iesuites had gained by their easie devotion so that now there are Iesuites every where and in all habits and though they claim the honour of being the first Authors of Moralls which have quite overthrown those of the Church there want not others who have imitated them in deceiving the world I remember that on a Holiday in a Church in Flanders I saw a vast multitude of people thronging to Confession and the Sacrament And soon after in discourse with one of these Fathers I told him I was much edified at the Devotion of the people and
God The Jesuites stirr not abroad by night for the Poor but do it for the Rich A merry prank play'd them by the Governour of Evora in his particular P. 394. What passed at Evora is very pleasant A Governour of that City some years before the revolt of Portugal knew the Iesuites well and that they run upon wheels when their interest calls them but have Lead in their heels when there 's nothing to be got though the business concern the good of their neighbour and the service of God He was informed that a poor man being sick to death they went at midnight to the Iesuites Colledge because this man lodged neer them to desire one of them to come and confess him The Porter answered that the Fathers never stirred out of the Colledge by night and so the poor man dyed without being confessed The Governour took this occasion to make others know the Iesuites as well as he knew them and to undeceive such as had a good opinion of them he sent his servant one night to desire a Confessor from the Iesuites for a woman that lay a dying but instructed him well and forbad him to tell whence he came The servant went to the Colledge and having called and knocked a long time the Porter came to the Gate cursing him to the Devil that knocked but took the Message and went to deliver it to the F. Rector The servant waited for an Answer which after a long attendance was brought him to this purpose that the F. Rector advised him to go seek out the Curat of the Parish for that they of this holy House stirred not abroad by night Some dayes after the Governour sent them a message from him that after supper he had been suddenly taken with an Apoplexy whose consequence might be dangerous and to prevent the ill that might otherwise ensue he desired that he might have a Iesuite to confess him As soon as the servant had delivered his message two Iesuites came forth warmly clad for it was Winter and went beside the Governours house who attended them by the way with the Officers of Justice When he saw them he asked who they were and whither they went They answered they were Iesuites and went to confess the Governour who lay a dying This is all false replyes he for I am the Governour and very well in health and you are not Iesuites but Robbers and so sent them to prison where they continued all night The Rector having heard of this Accident in the Morning went in search of those of his Order found them in prison and complained to the Archbishop who proceeded against the Governour But the Governour would not let them goe till they had made an Authentique information and proved by the depositions of several witnesses that they were men of a Religious Order and that they were acknowledged and commonly reputed such This took up a dayes time and the Rector and other Iesuites bestirred themselves to purpose and would have given money to clear themselves of the mischance and thought themselves kindly used that the Governour insisted on no more satisfaction for delivery of the Prisoners The Governour excused himself for what past because he knew on one side that the Iesuites stirred not abroad by night no not to confess persons that lay a dying and that on the other side finding at midnight two persons in the streets in Iesuites habit it gave him just cause to suspect that they were Robbers who made use of that disguise This story was told me by a Lay-brother a Iesuite named Pantaleon d' Almeyda who was at Granada not many years since whom his Superiors have since sent into New Spain The corrupt Manners of their Schollars and Priests in three Great Provinces How they keep their Vow of Obedience to the Pope and endeavour to cheat Princes P. 410. The Iesuites make a particular vow of obedience to the Holy See though sufficiently obliged without it and as if all Catholiques were not of their opinion in the point but 't is easie to discover by what follows how ill they perform it 'T is known these Fathers take on themselves the instruction of youth in all parts of the world to infuse into them the Principles of Learning and Good manners They managed it so well in the Provinces of Stiria Carinthia and Carniola that the Ecclesiasticks who had studyed under them led so infamous lives and gave such ill examples that Pope Paul 5. held himself obliged by the duty of his Office to take order for their reformation For this purpose in 1619. he appointed the Bishop of Serzane his Nuntio in the Empire to be Visitor that he might correct and punish the debauchery of their manners so dishonourable to the Church The Iesuites who loved these wretched Priests and Students as their true disciples to discharge their vow of obedience to the Holy See left no stone unturned to hinder the Visitation But seeing the Nuntio far advanced in the chastisement and reformation of these corrupt Church-men they found a rare expedient to hinder the effect of the punishments given them and to procure them impunity in their loose courses of life F. Bartholomeâ— Villers a Iesuite was then Confessor to the Archduke and had the priviledge to give his advice first in all sorts of Affairs He represented to this Prince that the Popes design in this Visitation was to know and procure a Memoire of all the forces and fortifications of all his Estate for some purposes unknown but such as there was just cause to suspect That the Nuntio being an Italian would take with him some persons of the same Nation to assist in the Visitation that it was not fit to give strangers liberty to enter the State to penetrate its secrets and reduce them into Memoirs Had this Prince been less pious he had not needed greater motives to cross the good intentions of the Pope But having discovered these of the Iesuites and the weakness of their reasons he seconded the designs of the Pope and the Visitation was held throughout these three Great Provinces wherein there were found only fix Priests who used not Concubines and were otherwise guilty of scandalous living What shall we now say of the Iesuites who would have perswaded this Prince to hinder the execution of the Ordinances of the Pope And is not this a good obedience to the Soveraign Pontife I have often heard it said The Robber and Receiver merit the same punishment Another Author who relates this story sayes that these debauched Priests had not only studied under the Iesuites but made it their custom to give the Fathers several Presents and that this engaged these Masters to favour their Schollers and take them into protection though publick and scandalous sinners Plerique enim provinciarum illarum Sacerdotes ex Iesuitarum scholis profecti munusculd illis frequenter missitabant adeoque duplici nomine quamvis palam essent improbi Magistrorum patrâ—cinium gratiamque
it would be much to my comfort if it were true that this Abbott dyed piously as I had read in his Epitaph but I should be more joyfull to hear some particulars of his repentance He answered me very simply there was no doubt but he dyed in a very good condition for that he had been assisted by their Fathers in his last sickness Father said I pray tell me how he came into this good condition if after he had scandalized all the world by his Debaucheries infamous Avarice and Impieties he edified the Church by some marks of repentance what penance did he hath he at least restored the vast summes whereof he robbed his Monastery and the poor For you know without doubt that he enjoyed above twenty years two Benefices whereof he never gave Almes And that to gain the greater Revenue he let almost all his Monks die without receiving any He spent no more in repairs than in Alms so that all the Regular placâ—s of his Monastery are run to ruine particularly there is neither Dormitory Infirmiry nor Refectory lastly not satisfied with all the money he heaped up by such extraordinary niggardliness he hath cut down the best part of the Woods of his Monastery and converted them to his use The Good Father assured me the Fathers took no cognizance of all this that his Estate passed to Monsieur his Brother a person of Credit and prime man of a City I was impatient and cryed out Father What Conduct what Aveings are here what did they not represent to this Abbot that a man of Religion cannot amass Money without amassing for himself a treasure of wrath against the last day Did they not tell him the fire must devour thâ—ir souls who have been so unhappy as to hide the Gold and Silver which they had to be imployed for relieving the necessities of the members of Christ Did they not threaten him with the dreadfull Judgements of God who hath no compassion for Robbers and Sacrilegious persons who dye in their sins Father I know they had leisure enough to declare to him what he was obliged to do for that he was above six months sick and your Fathers visited him during all that time If it be true that they did not forget to oblige him to make restitution of his Rapines that he might thereby at least satisfie one part of his sins but that he notwithstanding continued obdurate How could your Fathers give absolution to a sinner who had given no signs of repentance but persisted wilfully in his Crimes in keeping to the last vast summs of money in his hands to which he had no right St. Peter hath taught us with what â—everity they are to be judged who divert and retain for themselves any part of things consecrate to God This Crime was punished by sudden death in the person of Ananias and it was the Prince of the Apostles who pronounced that terrible Judgement If your Fathers have given any hope of salvation to a person more criminal than Ananias what was it but to abuse the power of Christ in declaring that a living soul which was really dead I confess Father that what opinion soever I conceived of your speculative Morality I see now you surpass it in your practical They who write books and expose their thoughâ—s to the eyes of the world have commonly some Reserves and dare not express their wicked opinions barefaced and naked but clothe them with some specious probabilities of truth which conceals at least from the eyes of the people some part of their lyes But I perceive by this instance you trouble not your selves to disguise your detestable Maxims that you easily dispense with the most indispensable Laws and will do any thing to please men By the ancient custom of Monasteries every Fryar with whom they found money after his death was held unworthy of Christian Buriall and his body exposed to be devoured by Birds and by Beasts But you my Fathers you have fine subtleties and devices to save all the world especially those who have money The vast summes found with the Abbot of St. Sulpice prevailed not with you to think him unworthy absolution and though he dyed without giving any thing to the poor which is a sensible mark of his Reprobation you were not afraid to interre his miserable Reliques in your Church and adorn him with publick Monuments of piety I begg your pardon Father for the liberty I take to tell you my thoughts I shall add one thing more which doubtless all persons of a mean understanding that shall here speak of this story will presently inferr The world does you the right to take you for persons of prudence and wisdome and wanting no address or dexterity when your interest is concerned This well-grounded perswasion will naturally incline them to believe that when you give absolution to sinners who have done nothing to merit it you are well paid for it as a thing of your gift which you owe not in justice And that you take to your selves at least a great part of the Estates of those wicked rich men to whom you promise Paradice without regard to Gods Word who excludes them from thence who never repent And certainly M. the Abbot of St. Sulpice made ill acknowledgement of the goodness you exprest towards him if he gave you not part of those Rapines he could not carry with him to the other world and were no longer of any use to him 'T were well then Father that men knew your behaviour in this affair They may possibly finde some reasons to excuse you and justifie the memory of your penitent 'T is possible he hath made some restitution which turned to your advantage and was applyed to your use and may advance his salvation as much as if it had been made to them to whom of right it belonged In a word it is probable there may be reason sufficient to preferr you before a Rabble of poor Folks and Monks that are of no use to the World who had right to the Money he bestowed on you This Father being none of the ablest appeared sufficiently perplexed at this discourse but at last being obliged to say something in Justification of the Company he assured me this Abbot had given them nothing and that for the Enterrement and Epitaph whereof they took care they had received only Sixty Lonyses which was little more than what it had cost them All this was so simply related by the poor Father that certainly he knew no more so that I said no more to him but that I blamed them very much for doing so wicked a work at so cheap a rate From Lyons we went to St. Sulpice where I was an Eye-witness of the disorder wherein this wretched Abbot leâ—t the Monastery both in its spiritual and temporal Concerns and understood he committed enormities which sufficiently demonstrated he had neither Honour nor Religion A Fryar he was but seldom or never wore the habit of his
and govern those Princes So that we may say of the Society what Seneca said in his 33. Ep. that there is inequality when eminent things are rare and remarkable but that a tree is not admired where all others of the forrest are of equall height And here cast your eyes which way you please you shall not discern any thing which would not be eminent above others were it not placed among such as are of equal height Lib. 3. Orat. 1. Pag. 402. We cannot doubt now but it was in their favour as themselves assure us that the Abbot Ioachim prophesied That at the end of the world there should be a Religious Order composed of Perfect men who should imitate the life of Christ and his Apostles These good Fathers are doubtless the same for they are almost all perfect and all so eminent in the Art of governing consciences as they call it that what is rare elsewhere is so common amongst them that excellence looses its lustre because it is common and that miracles are not admired because ordinary with them Sure Avila and St. Francis de Sales nere thought of this Society when they said that we may be to seek a good Director of conscience among a thousand since there is so great a number in this Order that even those who confess the people are as learned and as wise as those that confess Princes that whereas else where we may be to seek one good Director among ten thousand we shall hardly find one bad among ten thousand of these Fathers being all good and excellent and numerous beyond imagination and all as able as the Confessors of the great men of the world O multitude of Sages which is the health of the Universe they are all as ready and servent to confess a poor man or instruct an insant as to govern the consciences of Princes O multitude of Saints O disinteressed charity O seraphick zeal the Glory of Christianity They are all Lions Eagles Heroes choyce men thunderbolts of war born with helmets on their heads every one worth an Army Admire you the courage of undertaking in one of these Fathers They are all masculine persons or rather generous Lions not dismayed at any danger slighting with constancy all misadventures Paleness and fear prevail not upon them you shall see these Heroes receive with undaunted force of spirit for the cause of God and Religion all the tempests and storms of heaven in the midst of fire thunders and lightnings After the example of the Apostles whose lives and travels they strive to imitate and represent they share among themselves the whole earth and distribute the spoils and victories between them The spirit of the Lord animates these new Samsons They are of the Spirits of Eagles seizing with a marvellous swifâ—ness like those birds on the prey at greatest distance Lib. 3. Orat. 2. Pag. 402. seq All they of the Society are born as 't is said of some children with Helmets on their heads because they are to be exposed to the point of the sword to the buffets of Fortune and all the injuries of their enemies Prol. Heros Societ Immortal God! what choyce men what thunderbolts of war what a flower of Chivalry what pillars what tuâ—ilar Angels and protectors of the Church are they I dare affirm every one of them capable of the greatest matters and worth an Army for maugre the rage of the Enemy by the favour of heaven and with the applause of all the world one of this Society carries the victory against so many Enemies that you would swear a compleat Army not capable easily to overcome Iudge from hence 〈◊〉 at the Society joyning their Forces in an intire body can do This Society shall I say of men or Angels what ruines what massacres of errours and vices will it not procure what succours will it not afford the Church when attacked But why say I shall afford We may rather say what hath she not afforded As we may believe foretold by the Oracle of the Royal Prophet Psal. 67. since the Hebrew interpreters Arias montanus Pagninus and Genebrard instead of Your living creatures render it your Society your Congregation your Elect your Troop shall inhabit the Laâ—d and the Chaldee Paraphrase bath exprest it You have prepared an army of your Angelical troops To do good to the poor of God I take this passage as if the Prophet inspired by God had had a near view of the Society of Iesus in his visions Pag. 410. These Fathers are so prophetical that they are not content to speak magnificently of their Society by studied discourses in prose and verse but in imitation of the Prophets of the Old Testament they express themselves by actions and representations that are obvious to the sight and dazle our eyes This was seen in the City of Goa when to celebrate their Secular year they caused a triumphant Chariot to be drawn wherein the Society was represented with all the pomp and splendour they could devise 'T is true this Chariot was not lift up in the air as that 〈◊〉 Elias but in recompence of that defect it was view'd and admired by a great number of persons and trilled through the town with the acclamations of the beholders They went not to heaven to seek Angels to guide it that had been too troublesome they chose them among their Schollars who became Angels by changing their habits these young Angels provided of white robes and wings of all colours were imployed to draw some of these good Fathers in the chariot for a spectacle to the whole City This triumph was accompanied with delicate musick which ceased not till silenced by a more masculine composed of the sounds of Drums and Trumpets which sounded an Alarum and Charge when they came to any narrow lane for there they must engage the Devils who placed there of purpose pretended to stop the chariot and hinder the triumphant Society to finish their carreire But as the Society is ever victorious so these combats ended alwayes to their advantage and the Devils being chosen as well as the Angels out of their Schollars were of intelligence with them not to make long or eager resistance While they thought nothing but the pleasure of their divertisement an accident which all their prophetick prudence could not foresee marred all their mirth and was an ill omen to their proceedings One of the wheels of the Chariot fastned in a hole whence all the vertue of these Elias's who were in it and the strength of the Angels that drew it could not get it out though the poor Angels strained hard to sair it but in vain then as their custome is in extremitiâ—s to make use of any thing to serve their turn they were necessitated to invoke the aid of of their Devils to pull out their Chariot which they did but not without the laughter of the spectators and scandal to many who begun to say publickly That the devils had at
of the Iesuites as in the name of the Company of Iesus granted them by Paul the 3d. at their desire with many extraordinary and unheard of priviledges as they themselves testify when they say That the Popes having said in their Bulls That this Society hath been raised by the Providence of God their judgements in these things are not subject to errour because it seems God gives his Oracles by him But the Popes infallibility is subject to contest when he censures the Books of three famous Iesuites Poza Bâ—uny and Cellot with such brands of errours and heresies condemned that he makes their Books of the number of prohibited ones so dangerous and pernicious that they ought not to be read or imprinted and then when he darts the intire thunderbolt of Anathema against the Book of Rabardean the Iesuite saying That the Saâ—â—ed Congregation having maturely examined the propositions contained in his Book hath judged that there are many rash scandalous offensive to devout eares seditious impious intirely destructive to the Papal Power contrary to the immunities and liberties of the Church approaching very near the heresies of the Innovators erronious in the Faith and manifestly heretical For there is cause to believe that the Pope consults not his Oracle when he acteth against it and attributes to the famous Authors of this August Society falsities impieties and heresies approaching neer those of the Innovators And why should not the Disciples of the Iesuites piously believe that it were easie for this High Priest on these occasions to have seen false visions than that these Oracles of Doctrine and Truth should become lyers Now me thinks these good Fathers ought to reserve their humility and modesty for some occasion and not call her the Little Society when they tell us their Society is the Oracle of the Soveraign Pontife and spread through the four parts of the world Elogies that denote her of the greatest grandeur excellence and extent of all Societies in the Universe But it may be that when they say This Society fastned on the breast of the Pope they would qualifie her with the title of Little lest men should think she might lye heavy on his stomack and be a burden to him because of her greatness As for what they add that the Church loves their Society more than she ought or the Society deserves 't is a modesty not to be approved for that in Truth the Church ought intirely to love those who are not only the Restorers of the Life of Christ and the Apostles among men A Society of Angels and Heroes but are besides the Oracle of Doctrine and Truth which he who represents her Head and her Spouse carries on his breast the owes them not love only but respect Truth being venerable of it self and the Oracles of Truth deserving a double Reverence As to that they insinuate of purpose to sweeten the Envy of other Orders against their Society That other Orders of Religion are in the Church what the Manna the Tables and Aarons Rod were in the Ark of the Covenant and that they call these three things the three Oracles of the Ancient Religion to make the Title they assume of the Oracle of Doctrine and Truth more passable and currant I fear the able persons of other Orders will believe those good Fathers do but jear them making them believe that these three things were sometimes Oracles which they never were but continued shut up in the ark without use in the external paâ—â— of religious Worship whereas this Oracle of Judgement Doctrine and Truth was the most august and necessary Ornament of the High Priest without which he could not execute any function of Priest and Supream Judicature It seems by this that the Iesuites would reduce other Orders of Religion to continue locked up in their Monasteries as reliques in their Chests and as the Manna Tables and Rod were in the Ark and keep for themselves all the honourable imployments of the Church which can have no favourable construction among other Orders most men even those who make profession of piety not loving to be mocked with false titles of honour pretended to be given them by those who assume the true and most illustrious to themselves But though the patience and charity of good men of other Orders were sufficient to bear this mockery with simplicity it would not excuse the malignity of the Iesuites in offering the indignity The Example of Bishops who preferred that of the Society to their Character and Titles of Honour A Bishop in 1602. Declared publickly That he gloried more in the title of a brother of our Society than in that of a Bishop and esteemed it a greater Ornament than his Cross and his Myter lib. 3. c. 7. pag. 363. Not long since a Bishop of the Realm of Naples who in his life-time had more love for his Mitre than for the Society said at his Death O holy Society which I have not sufficiently known untill now nor deserved to know thee thou surpassest the Pastoral Crosier the Mitres the Purple of Cardinals the Scepters the Empires and Crowns of the world Lib. 5. c. 10. p. 667. An excellent Document for our Lords the Bishops Archbishops and Cardinals if they love their Churches and Dignities more than the company of Jesuites that is if they are more BishopS Archbishops and Cardinals than Jesuites When they appear before God Christ will not ask them whether they have loved their sheep whether they have fed and guided them aright and laboured for the good of the Church but whether they have loved his Companions the Jesuites upheld the interest and favoured the enterprizes of this Little Society of these Little and Beloved Benjamins A Bishop of France who knew the Iesuites better than this Prelate of Italy and was endued with a more Episcopal science told these Fathers That there was great difference between the Order of Bishops and theirs for that there is no doubt that the former was of an holy institution and its Authority necessary for the preservation of the Church though all were not Saints who were invested with the dignity but as for the Iesuites without examining particulars the whole body was of no value it being more than probable thâ—â— the spirit of the world and politick respects had contributed more to their establishment than the Spirit of Christ and that the Good Ignatius brought into it was presently destroyed by the interessed Ambition of his Successors Three great Archbishops of Malines who possessed that dignity immediately one after the other and dyed reputed Saints had thoughts very different from those of the Italian Bishop For the ancientest of the three speaking of the Iesuites said These men shall flourish at first but afterwards become a Curse to all People his Successor added These men shall trouble the Church The last Propheeyed of them in these words These men shall become as the dung of the Earth To conclude the last Bishop of
us and gains us the victory I will endeavour to make it appear that Iesuâ— hath shewed to the World that foundation and propagation â—f the Society is like an illustrious monument to make his Name admirable and remâ—in to perpetuity for the declaration of his Glory As Christ said to his disciples that they should be hated of all men for his Names sake which is the Name of Christians the whole Earth being then Pagan and Idâ—latrous so they pretend they are hated and persecuted only for the name of Jesuites they bear though all Europe be Christian and adores Iesus Christ And as Iesus Christ is in the Vessel of the Church they pretend he is also in the Vessel of their Society being as they call it an Epitome of the Church within the Church Lib. 4. c. 1. Our Fathers had recourse to God in tempests being seized with the like fear as the Apostles when they ran to Christ asleep in the ship But Iesus is so in the Vessel of the Society that as it was the Mariners safety to have in his Bâ—at Caesar and his fortune so the name of Iesus we bear is our assurance though it be also the cause of our perils he shall command the winds and the sea and there shall be a calm Lib. 4. p. 483. All these passages cited by these Fathers in their favour are no solid proof that the Authors of holy Scripture and the Prophets spoke of them but shew their presumption and self-love in entertaining themselves with the thoughts of their excellencies whereof they are so full that they see them in every thing This is the cause they have so little respect for Holy Scripture that they fear not to make it serve the desires of their heart and to substitute themselves in the place of Iesus Christ and the Church They have reason to fear lest by abusing the Word of God with so much indignity and insolence they make themselves of the number of those of whom St. Paul in his 3d chap. of the 2d to Timothy saith that having a form of godliness they deny the power thereof The pre-eminence of Ignatius above Moses the Apostles and Founders of Religious Orders One of the three Sermons made by the Dominicans at the Canonization of Ignatius which the Iesuites have made theirs by translating it out of Spanish into French by their F. Sollier and have been censured by the Sorbonn hath these expressions We know that Moses with his Rod in his hand did great Miracles in the Aire the Earth Water Rocks and in all he thought good to the drowning of Pharaoh and his who'e Army in the Red Sea But it was the inâ—ffable Name of God which Learned Tostatus Bishop of Aula sayes was graven in the Rod that wrought the Miracles I was no great wonder then that the Creatures seeing the Ordinances of God their Soveraign Lord and King subscribed with his Name rendred him obedience Nor is it to be mâ—rvelâ—ed that the Apâ—stles did sâ— mâ—ny Miracles for that they wrâ—ught all in the Name of God by the vertue and power he had given them seâ—ling it with the Inscriptiâ—n In my Name they shall cast out Devils speak with new Tongues c. But that Ignatius with his Name in Paper should work Mâ—racles greater than Moses and equal to the Apostles that his Seal had so much authoriâ—y that the Creaâ—ures â—ave it quick and sudden obedience 't is this that makes him the subject of our greatest admiration Upon which Article the Sorbonn in their Censure printed in 1611. saith that this manner of speech whereby the name of the Crâ—atures seems equalled to that of Almighty God and where Miracles are lessened and exteâ—â—ated for having been wrought in the Name of God lastly where uncertain Miracles are preferred to those which ought to be held for Articles of Faith is scandalous erroneous blasphemous and impious And in the 91 page of the same Sermon While Ignatius lived his life and manners were so grave so holy and so elevated even in the opinion of Heaven that none but Popes as St. Peter Empresses as the Mother of God some Soveraign Monarch as God the Father and the Son had the happiness to enjoy a full Vision of it Whereupon the Sorbon also hath declared That this Assertion suggesting that God receives benefit by the Vision of a creature is scandalous and contains manifest heresie In the third and fourth page of the 2 d Sermon Doubtless the Founders of other Religious Orders were sent in favour of the Church But since these last dayes God hath spoken to us by his Son Ignatius whom he hath established heir of all Whereupon the Sorbon hath further declared that the application of the Text of St. Paul In these last days literally to any other but Christ is scandalous erroneous and â—avours of blasphemy and impiety Proud Comparisons of the Foâ—nders and Generals of the Society with Emperours Conquerours and Great Princes of the World They make an Apostrophe to Mutius Vitâ—â—lâ—schi their General and say All Posterity shall know that you have been the first General in the end of the first Age as Rome called their Emperours by the name of Augustus from the end of his time Lib. 1. Dissert 5. p. 17. They compare the union of the Jesuites to that of two Roman Emperours and to that effect tell us of the Emperour Aurelian where two Emperours are graven with the Sun above them giving them both equal irradiation with this Inscription The agreement of the Caesars comparing the concord of the Jesuites to that of Heathe Princes When Alexander had tamed the Horse called Bucepbalus Philip his Father told him that he must entertain thoughts worthy the Generosity of his heart and by the power of Arms seek a Kingdom equal to his invincible courage Macedon being too little for him When Ignatius had so valiantly subdued the unruly passions of corrupt Nature we have reason to believe that Christ stirred him up to undertake the greatest matters in the world using the like expressions and saying Rome and Italy are too narrow for thy courage Europe is not large enough seek out new Realms and new Worlds wherein to plant the Trophyes of thy Religion Lib. 1. c. 10. Oâ— 3. p. 118. The Mission which Christ gave his Apostles to subdue all the Earth was somewhat more effectual but not expressed in such terms of Pride But these Fathers are not ashamed to make the Saviour of the World and great pattern of humility to speak in Language suitable to their Arrogance and Presumption They say further That Ignatius had no need to imitate the Captain of the Hebrews in commanding the Sun to stand still that he might have time to compleat his Victory for he in the perpetual course of his illustrious and most glorious Victories hath followed the Sun from East to West almost throughout the World And having conquered himself he had cause to hope to conquer the Universe What could be
make for their Glory to end all they compare this great body to Christ Iesus himself as if all other perfections but that of God-man were unworthy of them They are strongly possest with a fancy that their Company is like unto Christ and that as there is nothing in Christ but what is Holy it follows in their imagination that all is holy among them too There is nothing so corrupt in their manners so extravagant in their devotion so false in their Theology which they maintain not as the Sentiments of the Church Many of their Divines invent fanatick opinions and the Universities have been often obliged to censure their Authors But these Fathers persist in their principles and thinking it necessary to maintain themselves to be infallible as the Church they never recant and have all in their hearts what one of them sometime stuck not to pronounce That the opinion of a Iesuite is alwayes Catholique dogma Catholicum Iesuiticum convertuntuâ— And thus supposing alwayes this Society to be all holy all luminous all perfect without spot without infirmity without malady they believe it impossible to praise it excessively as a work of God beyond all praise and that these holy companions of Iesus Christ are so united to him that all that may be said to their advantage returns unto God In so great a measure doth he partake of all that concerns them But while they admire themselves in this manner they perceive not the misery of the condition they are fallen into which we cannot better express than to say that the extream desire they have had to pass for the wisest and most illuminated in the world hath rendered them foolish and senseless that they have lost themselves in their vain Ratiocinations that their minds and their hearts having been covered with darkness they have transferred the honour due only to the incorruptible God unto their Society full of corruption and misery and as the Pagans having chosen for Gods men subject to all sorts of passions and vices were in pursuance of that folly obliged to sanctifie those disorders so the Iesuites alwayes supposing themselves Saints take no care to purifie themselves from those faults which are common to them with other men but labour to sanctifie those faults in giving the greatest vices of a Iâ—suite the golden titles of vertue and goodnâ—ss so that though they are ambitious covetous interâ—ssed revengeful as other men they are still innocent for considering themselves under no other notion than that of one of the most excellent works of God they fancy that in praising themselves they but praise God that in exalting themselves above the world they do but establish the Empire and Authority of Christ that in heaping up riches and scraping wealth together all the wayes they can devise they serve not their interest but Iesus Christ for as for them though they lodge in magnificent houses and amass all the estate they possibly can by â—eâ—â—aments and donations by trafick by borrowing money and then proving bankrupts they pretend to be poor and alwayes without money because they have nothing whereof they devest not themselves speculatively into the hands of Iesus Christ. As they pretend they have no enemies but those of God they think it permitted them to oppress them as they please and as if their power were as Gods inseparable from Justice they never shew the least scruple or repentance for any evil they do them who oppose their most wicked designs Lastly though their Authors are guilty of almost infinite errours and fill their books with detestable maximes they forbear not to regard them with such respect and submission as if they alone were the Rule of the Truth and as if every opinion written in their books must of necessity be holy and good St. Augustine teaches us that God serves himself sometimes of the most shameful miscarriages of proud men to make them see their corruption to humble them and oblige them to have recourse to repentance but it seems this remedy is of no use for the Iesuites those remarkable and most shameful falls so frequent in their Society having not been yet able to open their eyes nor to perswade them that they are not impeccable So great is their passion to make their Society pass for a Virgin without blemish that they have intirely abolished repentance amongst them and all the marks of it as a superfluous thing I cannot but report on this occasion the complaint made to me by one of their brethren for some few there are who mourn for these horrible disorders and begin to open their eyes He told me that as soon as any of them is Priest if he be unhappy enough to fall secretly into a mortal sin he must of necessity dye in impenitence for they are indispensably obliged to say Mass every day which supposeth them all saints or that a simple confession can in a moment re-establish them in the sanctity they had lost and restore them to the dispositions necessary in them who approach the Altar what crime soever they have committed I enter not the secrets of the heart and of the consciences of particular men but if we may be allowed to guess in general at their weakness and infirmities by those of many who publickly fall into infamous Actions I think it may be said without passing rash Judgement that 't is very possible that some of them fall into sins that oblige them to repentance and that it is so much the more possible that they are of a very great number that they live without any Austerity and great liberty of converse with all sort of people besides that their ordinary imployments their Preaching Confession and Classes are oftentimes neer dangerous occasions of falling into sin so that it being very probable that some fall into those precipices which all are so neer 't is strange that the passion they have for their Glory should so harden them in their Crimes that it hath never been seen that any of them that have fallen came out of that state by a true and compleat repentance This love of Glory is so great amongst them that it hath not only made them abolish repentance for fear of giving any colour to think they need it but hath carry'd them sometimes to the doing of extreme violences and great injustice for covering those faults whereby they might receive any dishonour and the better to conceal them they labour with all Artifice to justifie the persons who have committed them We have an instance of this Excess in the Theatre of the Jesuites p. 396. so horrible that the Author durst not report it But the world knowes it by other means and Mariana acknowledges that it is their custom when they fear the fault of any Father not yet discovered may come to light to transport him presently into another Province And when some disorder appears in a Superiour whose reputation they would maintain in the world whom notwithstanding
Religion in these evil times who thought it not his duty to swear an immortal enmity against our Fathers So that the passage in Scripture may be as properly applyed to our Society as it was to St. Paul I will shew him how much he must suffer for my Name p. 123. Why should I trouble my self further to consider the boldness of these new Apostles who pretend to make as many Articles of Faith as they please to find new senses of Scripture in corrupting it and turning the passages from the true sense to apply them to themselves for if you believe them 't was not so much of St. Paul as of their Society that Christ spake when he said I will shew him how much he must suffer for my Name They who have any love for their salvation are much concerned that the faith be not corrupted by these new additions and those who receive easily these Articles of Faith of the Iesuitick Church ought to fear lest they forget those which Christ hath taught his Church what they add in the same behalf is an imagination without ground pretending the hereticks as they call them make war particularly against them by reason of the Name of Iesus which they bear to shew it is not for the Name of Catholicks which they have common with the Bishops the Popes and an infinite number of Doctors Ecclesiastical persons and Fryars but because by particular priviledge they bear the Name of Iesus in bearing that of Iesuites As if the hereticks believed not in Iesus Christ and held not the Name of Iesus Sacred and adorable as we and as if it were not known that Calvin hath put the Name of Iesus at the top of every page of his Institution to endeavour to sanctifie his books by that Holy Name as the Iesuites make use of it to hallow their unholy actions and opinions In another place with a pride proper to them and on design to draw glory to themselves from the hatred of hereticks towards them say they all the enemies of the faith fling their darts at us as if the maintenance of holiness and the Catholick Religion depended on the subsistence of our Society alone being perswaded that if this pillar of publick safety were pulled down and ruined there could be nothing easier than intirely to destroy the faith with the piety the ceremonies and worship of the Church As this thought is suitable to the good opinion the Iesuites have of themselves I believe them at least as capable of it and all other thoughts of self-conceit and vain glory as the worst of those Hereticks But as to the particular animosity between the Lutherans and Calvanists and these fathers all the learned know that it proceeds not from an opinion that they are better able to reâ—ute their errours than the Doctors of Universities the Bishops and Cardinals it being notorious to the world that the books of Ruard Tapper the famous Doctor of Loven of Drued of Augustin Sâ—ucchius Eugabinus a Bishop in Italy and many other excellent persons of the faculty of divinity and other eminent Prelates are stronger against the Lutherans than those of the Iesuites and that when compared with Saintez upon the Eucharist or Cardinal Perron against the Lutherans the books of the Iesuites look like those of Students or School-boys besides it comes not to pass because they of the Reformed Churches think them more holy than other Orders of Religion though they publish themselves altogether perfect and Ramparts of the Doctrine of Faith for they know as well as the Roman Catholicks that their spirit is less humble their life less austere their knowledge less Ecclesiastical their charity less patient and meek their piety less dis-interessed than those of other Orders but 't is because the Iesuites preach no other thing in their books against hereticks but that they ought to be exterminated and burnt And that those Hereticks who have not zeal enough to seek the Glory of false martyrdom love more the charity and gentleness of Catholick Doctors and Bishops who desire not the death of a sinner but that they may be converted and live than the irregular zeal of those who labour not so much to convince men by Truth and overcome them by Charity as to destroy them by injuries and ruine them by violent counsels which they inspire into Kings and Rulers against them Another Reason that the Hereticks are more inclined to ingage with them than other Catholick Doctors is that those Fathers fill their books with new Opinions fantastick tenets and corrupt maximes which give the hereticks great advantage against them this medley of ill things making it more facile for them to desend themselves against their writings and to answer their Reasons Other Orders are said to come of the Saints who have founded them as the Benedictins from St. Benedict the Dominicans from St. Dominique and so of the rest which is the reason they are called the Orders of St. Benedict St. Dominique c. But the Iesuites have this advantage above all other Orders That their Company is the Company of Iesus himself the Society of the Son of God the Order whereof he is the true Author and that bâ—aâ—s his Name That Christ is their first Fâ—uâ—der the Virgin the second and St. Ignatius only the third lib. 1. c. 6. St. Ignatius was so humble that he thought himself unworthy to give the Name of Ignatians to his Companions after the custome of other Founders wherein he seems willing to have imitated the Apostles whose humility St. Augustine praises in that they gave not the Names of Paulians and Petrians but Christians to the faithfull but if we will judge â—right of things we may say the Society hath taken the Name of their Author for Ignatius attributing all unto God in the founding of his Society and nothing to himself and declaring that Christ was the first and principal Author thereof he did it with great reason that according to the custome among the Philosophers in the Christian Religion and the Orders thereof the Society should bear the Name of their Author without mention of Ignatius who desired to be concealed p. 68. Wherein he pretends that the Divine Excellence which is found in the foundation of the Church in that it hath Iesus Christ for its first and true chief and founder and in that he hath given it the surname of Christian from his name Christ appears in the foundation of this Society whereof they say Christ is the true and first Author and gave it his Name incomparably more August than his Surname as if he had waved his general Society of the Church that he might reserve this highest honour for the particular Society of Iesuites That Virgin knowing and Martyr Society as another calls it and if you take their word you may believe Ignatius had the place of St. Peter Xavier of St. Paul their ten first Fathers that of the twelve Apostles and the sixty first Iesuites
established by the first Bull of Paul the 3 d. that of the seventy Disciples of our Lord. Ignatius say they was first inclined to take the name of the Company of Jesus in 1538. after a vision in a desart Church on his way to Rome where God the Father appeared to him recommending Ignatius and his two Companions Peter le Teure and Iames Laines to his Son Iesus Christ bearing his Cross who turning to them said I will be favourable to you at Râ—me This vision sayes Maffens the Jesuite was the principal ground of the Name of the Society of Iesus But 't is a strained conclusion and will hardly pass for a good inference in any but Iesuitical logick that because Christ promised to favour them at Rome it was his intention that a particular Order should assume his Name which the Church in reverence durst not take for the reason before given out of St. Thomas Besides we have equal evidence of Christs appearing and promising his assistance to several founders of other Orders who never thought it a commission to call themselves Iesuites which is not common to all Christians as they tell us lib. 1. c. 4. p. 69 the name of Christian which is the Surname of Iesus being the Name common to the whole Church which hath expressed that respect to the August Name of the Saviour of the world which the Popes have to that of St. Peter which they never assume though his successors in the Chief Chair of Christianity III. Priviledge That they are the freemen and companions of Iesus Christ a vision wherein they are preferred before the Capucins and Chartreus Monks 'T Is for this reason that whereas the Apostles styled themselves the servants of Iesus Christ the Iesuites have the Priâ—iledge to call themselves his Freemen and his Companions pag. 24. And that in a vision at Paris St. John the Evangelist having appeared to a young lad and asked him whether he would be a Capucian or a Chartreus the Bâ—y answering what God pleased St. John left him a paper and told him see there three Orders choâ—se which you will the paper containing the names of the Capucins and Chartreus in silver but of the Iesuites in Golden Letters which they attribute to the Sacred Name of Iesus they bear and visibly insinuate that as Gold is the most precious of metals so their Order is the most venerable and divine of all the Orders of Religion They that flatter the ambition and pride of the Grandees of the world exalt them in titles and magnifie their dignities which often serve to make them more vicious But 't is strange these Fathers who are All Perfect should boast so much of their Name as if to call one Iesuite were to Canonize him a Saint But let them take heed left for their unworthiness of the Name it rise in judgement against them to their condemnation great titles are common to good and bad men but as ambition is the ordinary purchaser so they fall commonly into the possession of wicked persons it being generally observed that none are more worthy contempt than those who by their titles claim preferance to other men the Bishop in the Apocalypse said he was rich and wanted nothing as the Iesuites pretend themselves the Companions of Christ and exalted above other men as the Name Jesus is of a superlative dignity but they like that Prelate know not that they are poor naked and blind said to live but really dead Rev. c. 1. IV. Priviledge All those who dye in the Society though never so young have accomplished an Age before their decease THough Old Age be rare in the Society where Study consumes men in the flower of Yâ—uth yet no man dyes in the Sâ—ciety but he hath lived a full Age laugh not at the Expression 't is not extraordinary but demonstratively true Virtuous Actions extend Life and lengthen our dayes Iesus was old at his birth Solomon at twelve years of age Daniel and Joseph when very young and so were Francis Strada Gonzaga Stanislaus Ubaldin Cajetan Berchman and others Studious men repair the brevity of life by reading of histories and the capacities which of themselves are long a ripening by the help of that Divine Wisdome and Heavenly light conspicuous in our constitutions quickly attain compleat maturity which makes the least Apprentices of our Company as men of one hundred years old in Knowledge and ripe in the Sciences before the flower of their Age. The whole world admits them to be such for as soon as initiated in the Society they are presently Presbyters which signifies old and called Fathers though in their Child-hood and by the Priviledges of the Society may preach though they be not in Orders and are all guided by a Divine Wisdome of greater assurance than the most approved Philosophy and longest Experience And being called by Iesus the Eternal Wisdome of his Father to partake of his care and share in his labours and assisting the world with Paternal affection there is not one among them to whom the Glory of Age is not due none who hath not accomplished his dayes and lived an Age though he dye a youth This concludes not the Iesuites wise but in their own eyes which is the worst of follies but the Author had good reason to tell us that Old Age is rare in the Society not but that many of them live very long but that few attain a maturity in wisdom V. Priviledge They are more prudent and politick than the Ministers of Spain WE read this brave Priviledge in one of the Sermons preached at the beatification of Ignatius translated into French by F. Sollier the Iesuite and printed by him at Poitiers in 1611. under the title of Three Excellent Sermons which he dedicated to Madam Frances de Foix Abbess of Nostre Dame de Xaintes and writ an Apology in defence thereof against the censure of the Sorbonne who had declared several propositions therein to be scandalous erronious manifestly herâ—tical blasphemous and impious The Order is divided into thirty three fâ—ir and large Provinces now above thirty six inhabits three hundred and six Houses and Colledges since increased to above eight hundred and conâ—â—â—ts of above one thousand five hundred and fourscore Brethren of the Order so Prudent in Governmâ—nâ— that there are among their Lay-brothers persons who may read Lessons in the Politiques to the Chancellours of Granada at Valladoldo and instruct the Council of State of our King pag. 172. 'T is no wonder that men who have so good opinion of their Wisdom and Charity for mankind should intermeddle so much in the affairs of Government 'T is a Priviledge they have beyond the Apostles prohibited by Christ to touch that secular Dominion that belongs to Kings and great men of the Earth The Kings of the Gentiles excercise Authority over them but it shall not be so among you But since the Iesuites so willingly undergo the toylsom burden of th' administration of Kingdoms
as we see at this day in Spain and do nothing but to promote the Glory of God we must not question but they have an express command from Christ to warâ—ant their Actions Besides it were an unpardonable injury to look on their General as those of the Iaâ—obins or Augustine Fryars who govern only men of Religion but if you will frame your Idea suitable to the Grandeur of the Subject you must conceive him a Soveraign no less Secular than Ecclefiastick that affects the Government of the world no less than that of the Church 'T is not long since that a French Lord had this confirmed from their Generals mouth telling him That from his Chamber he Governed not Paris only but China not China â—â—ly but the whole world yet no man knew how VI. Priviledge That Christ comes to meet every Jesuite at his death to receive him to Glory 'T Is one of the Priviledges of the Society of Iesus That upon the death of each Iesuite he advances to meet and conduct him to bliss Happy Souls assured to pass from the prison of mortality into the immortal bosome of our Lord Iesus the verity of this proposition depends not on my authority but of the Oracle that delivered it F. Crifoel the Iesuite tells us that in 1616 in the vision of Saint Therese a soul on her way to Glory in company of many more told this Saint A Brother of the Society of Iesus is our Guide how happy are we in such a Chief to whose vertue and prayers we owe our deliverance this day out of the pains of purgatory Wonder not that the Almighty comes to meet us 't is no new thing the brethren of the Society of Iesus have this Priviledge that when one of them dies Iesus comes to meet and receive him to Glory lib. 5. c. 8. p. 648. These Visions may be proper entertainments for the vanity of these Fathers who may need humility and repentance to bring them to Heaven As for the Vision it might appear in the fancy of a Jesuite but never to St. Therese who never related it and was so far from regarding such Apocryphal Revelations that she gave small encouragement to rely on any at all now adayes VII Priviledge That no Jesuite shall be damned that the Society hath no cause to fear corruption ALphonso Rodrigues had it revealed by Vision that not only his Companions then living but those that succeeded many years after should live with him eternally in Celestial bliss These are great favours but loe here a greater Francis Borgia told Mark his Companion with tears of joy Know Brother Mark that God hath extream love for our Society and granted it the Priviledge formerly given the Order of St. Benedict that for the first three hundred years no person that perseveres to the end in the Society shall be damned See the express terms as here rendred pag. 649. I heartily desire the salvation of these Fathers but must advertise them that nothing exposes them more to damnation then this false confidence that they cannot be damned Let them remember their Emblem Time ne tumeas fear the judgement of God and damnation of Hell lest the pride of our heart link us into it Where presumption hath banished fear from the Soul it becomes more bold to commit all manner of wickedness but where a servile fear ends in a filial this will make way for Charity to enter which when perfected will expell all fear A Fryar of another Order but Anonymus at the point of death sent for F. Matres the Jesuite Confessor to the Vice-Roy of Barcelona to tell him these words Happy are you O Father to be of an Order wherein whoever dyes enjoyes eternal felicity God hath revealed it and commanded me to publish it to the world The Jesuite confounded with admiration and modesty and asking him whether all of his own Order should not be likewise saved the dying man answered him with a groan That many should but not all but that all of the Society of Jesus without exception of any who persevered therein to the end should be crowned with eternal beatitude ibid. How great how divine was the wisdome of Ignatius who hath so armed the Society against the injuries of time and built on supporters of such strength that 't is an instance to the world to prove that all things are not the supplies of time But that Vertue and Religion may be so guarded that the course of Ages cannot corrupt them and what brings other things a decrepit age or certain death promises the Society â— perpetual youth so verdant and flourishing that she shall feel the revolution of ages without these effects of decay and ruine that usually attend it pag. 104. Thus their Society shall be more priviledged than the Church and other Orders of Religion which being like theirs mingled with the world are not exempt from its corruption but this Priviledge of incorruption is proper to these extraordinary Saints who are all Phoenixes and birds of Paradise Since then all the brethren of this Holy and ever flourishing Society shall be saved without exception according to the vision of that Anonimus Fryar they quote the first purity of this Society must endure to the end and surpass the Sanctity of that Fryars Order who though he observed a severe and most pure Discipline as they tell us lib. 5. c. 8. assures us that all of his Order could not be saved Thus pag. 147. they tell us the Society hath no cause to fear corruption though they confess the spirit of Ambition the greatest of corruptions seized them so soon that immediately after the death of Ignatius in 1565. being only twenty five years after their Institution Rashness and Ambition animated Nicolas Bobadille two of their first ten Brethren and four mâ—re of the profâ—ssion against two of their first Fathers and the rest of the Society they Solicited Cardinals rose eagerly against Laines then Vicar-General and afterwards General and violently questioned the Constitutions of the Order This they call The fate of Kingdomes and Republicks which erected with great pains turn their Forces and their Power against themselves the Dispute was for the Generalship which Laines by subtlety carried from the rest If you read Mariana of the Defects of the Society you may judge with what appearance of Truth they tell us their Society needs fear no corruption Let them beware that for want of judging and condemning themselves they be not at last condemned of God VIII Priviledge That the Blessed Virgin is intirely theirs THe Mother of God hath declared not only that the whole Society is hers but that she is wholly the Societies Platus a Brother of the Order Reports a Vision wherein the Virgin appeared with the Society under her Mantle The Society covered with this Mantle of the Virgin shall abide firm against all the furies of Hell the menaces of Tyranâ—s and the attaques of her Enemies as the immoveable stone of
asked him whether it was alwayes equal to what it appeared on the last Holiday The Father assured me I had seen only what was usual and ordinary that the people were very devout and failed not to frequent the Sacrament often But Sir said I to compleat my joy give me leave to ask you whether all these persons that communicate so often do it with that piety and holiness the Greatness of these mysteries requires whether they examine themselves seriously before they approach the Holy Table for fear of coming thither to condemnation and eating there their eternall ruine To speak plainly is it probable that all those who I see communicate every day in the week do all lead an holy and innocent life exempt from relapse into mortal sins after their repentance and in a word are so holy as they ought to be who so often partake of those holy things I perceived I spake to this good Father in a Language he was not accustomed to hear for being by this time sufficiently astonished he told me I demanded too much and what I required was the highest perfection that it was a rare thing to see men who fell not into mortal sins but that those Communicants took care to confess without fail as often as they fell What Sir said I those persons that fill your Churches are the same that after dinner people Taverns and Tipling-houses Bowling-greens and Theatres and other places of divertisement Contrary to the Gospel they serve two Masters in the Morning Christ and the rest of the day the Devil if so their Confession may in appearance bind the strong man of sin armed in their hearts but do not you know that when the House of our Soul hath been swept only by a servile and â—ruitless Confession and not filled after with sincere compunction and garniâ—hed with good works that strong man armed whom they fancyed bound and cast out returns thither with seven other spirits more wicked than himself and the last state of that man is worse than the first The Good Father had not the patience to hear what I would have said but speaking out of the abundance of his heart Sir said he must we not save all the world and if we cannot send sinners straight into Paradise 't is good to send them at least into Purgatory The frailty and weakness of men is so great in these times that to require great matters from them in duties of Religion is to make them quit all therefore as often as they fall into sin we must not neglect to grant them absolution whenas they demand it for as in their demand there is an appearance of their fear of damnation that fear with Confession are sufficient Grounds to give them absolution nor can it be denyed them according to the common opinion of the Casuists This Father could not have been more surprized at my Answer than I was at his reply Repenting in a manner that I had engaged with a person of Principles so different from mine that I foresaw it was impossible for us to agree however I resolved to make good my ground and one affault more to bring him to reason Father said I I am amazed at your expressions what agreement can there be between your practice and the Doctrine of the Fathers They teach us that to persist in the Commission of sin for which we pretend to have repented is not true repentance but a mocking of God that the Vicisâ—itude and Revolution of sins and Confessions succeâ—ding one another is to turn and return in the wayes of the wicked which certainly end in everlasting perdition I know 't is not strange that men who sin naturaly should be capable of falling into all kinds of disorders but 't is insupportable to see them from whom â—inneâ—s ought to receive light and instruction to serve for nothing but to blinde them the more and to put them out of that just fear they ought to have to approach Jesus Christ without reforming their Lives It was St. Augustines direction that he only should partake of the body and blood of the Saviour of the world who is already a part of his body by the union of Charity St. Basil would have Communicants able to say with St. Paul that it is not they that live but Christ that lives in them St. Francis de Sales in this last Age advises none to a daily Communion but such who not only never relapse into mortall sins but have no affection for the most Venial But by your practise Father these rules are exploded for with you they are worthy to be Communicants as often as they confess and to receive the bread of life though their crimes live and flourish in their hearts and their Actions Thus Confession alone is sufficient to make them pass for Devout and a life better regulated is an extraordinary sanctity not proportioned to the frailty and infirmities of persons of this Age. The Father impatient to give me the hearing could not refrain from intterrupting me to tell me that they did no more than what Christ had allowed in the Gospel for in St. Matthew when Peter asked Christ how often he should forgive the sins of his Brother the Saviour of the World made answer Not seven times but seventy times seven I was so moved at his producing so strange a proof and vouching a Text so improper to confirm the Maxim he maintained that I gave him not leisure to adde any more but told him Have you read that passage in the Gospel I doubt not but you have but your deâ—ire to make it subservient to your purposes and to apply it so as it may countenance your practises hath made you forget part of it which renders it wholly useless for your designs Permit me then to put you in minde that there are in that passage these very words Lord how often shall my Brother sin against me and I forgive him Observe those words Against me which shew that he treated only of particular offences which our Brethren may have given us but not of Crimes they commit against God And the question is not touching the use of the Keys which Christ hath committed to the Pastors of the Church but of that patience that meekness and charity every particular person ought to have towards them that offend him The Priests ought not to remit sins committed against God but according to the Rules prescribed by God in the Sacred Canons nor have any power according to the Fathers to unbind Lazarus who is the type and figure of a Sinner but after he hath been raised by Iesus Christ to new life But as to offences which concern us particularly Charity hath no bounds but an indispensable command to love even our enemies and what ill soever is done us we are obliged to overcome by pardon and forgiveness not seven times only but as often as the offence is reiterated This is the meaning of the place as all Commentators
who approach to the Sacraments the fountains of vertue and salvation that you cannot find any publick licentiousness in a Town where the frequent use of these misteries hath been confirmed by a laudable custome because the Author of Salvation can have no commerce with vice nor the darkness of Hell find any room in hearts so often irradiated by the Eâ—ernal Light 'T is strange I say that these Fathers who pretend to be the Masters of Theology speak so ignorantly of the most Commâ—n Tâ—u hes of the Faith and are so blind as to take the Sacraments for vertues which cannot be abused Is it possible that they know not what the world is assured of that there is an infinite number of Priests Fryars and Persons of all sorts who are the more wicked the oftner they Communicate and serve themselves of that which is most Sacred in Religion to cloke their Abominations from the sight of the world Can they be ignorant of this that the reception of Christ in the Eucharist though he be the true light doth only increase the blindness of those wretches and render them more wicked and corrupt who presume to receive the fountain of purity without repenting for their sins And that the Devil ceases not to continue master of their hearts who would seem to divide them between God and the Prince of Darkness It may be admired that they are so hot and intent upon the praise of their Society in the Image of their first Age as not to remember what they chaunt every day of the Holy Communion in their Churches Mors est malis vita bonis vide paris sumpâ—ionis quâ—m sit dispar exitus 'T is true Christ is Life but in the Eucharist he is not life to them who were not alive before but a severe judge of them who being dead in sin presume to approach the Fountain of Life So that there is great cause to bewail that all the reformation made by the Iesuites in the Church amounts only to the commission of an infinite number of sacrilegious Communions filling their Churches with innumerable multitudes of persons who never part with their Confessors without absolution what crimes soever they are guilty of and as soon as confest are held fit for the Altar I cannot forbear the relation of a story on this occasion often told by a Iesuite with very great delight This good Father acknowledged he had been much hindered from admitting to Communion a person so Cholerick and subject to blaspheme that he could not go from the place of Confession to the Altar without falling into the same crimes loosing in a moment all the fruit of his Confession and wholly indisposing himself to receive the Eucharist The Father according to the custome of the Society being more solicitous to make this man Communicate than to cure him of so dangerous a malady resolved to confess him at the foot of the Altar and to administer the Sacrament to him immediately after absolution This rare expedient he afterwards mentioned as a most refined invention and quintescence of spirituality which he had brought into practice by the happiness of his conceit without a president How extravagant soever this conduct may be 't is certainly very proper for persons who serve their interest and despise that of Christ. The more corrupt men are the more they love to be flatter'd and desire to be rid of that trouble and fear that are the natural companions of crimes And if they find such directors of Conscience as will assure them they are in the way to eternal beatitude there 's not a person amongst them so senseleâ—s as not to hold himself indebted to so obliging Divinity and to impart their temporal goods unto them who are so liberal of those of God and as the Casuists resolve that the Fathers are not bound in duty to give but may sell these things to their Devotes so these cannot but make good payment for their gentleness their condescendence their lies and their cheats Nor can it be doubted but that the confessionals they multiply so carefully in their Temples are so many little mines of Silver and Gold for as they procure all conveniencies for their penitents it cannot be supposed they forget themselves And while others who have not the excellent address of these Fathers take great pains by serious examination to dispose penitents to a sincere repentance and a newness of life these good Fathers are so dexterous and nimble that they dispatch in a short time the most detestable and inveterate sinners The most corrupt consciences which appear to others as an impenetrable abyss never stop their Carriere who Can confess the Devil himself in less than a quarter of an 〈◊〉 saith F. Grisiel If you examine their other practices of Devotion you will find no lesse disorder than in their administration of the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist for proof whereof you need onely consider their Relations of the pomps and shows they fill their Churches withall they make it their Glory to draw the people thither by erecting machines which may render their industry admirable and surprize the eyes of spectators But in the mean time neglect their cures and the Churches of other benefices they have usurped though they forget nothing to satisfie the most curious their Altars are adorned with the most exquisite picture and delicate sculptures nothing appears but rich and magnificent and all animated by Consorts of Musick that ravish the sense So that the house of Prayer and Penitence is converted into a place of pleasure and divertisement and oftentimes they act their Tragedies and Comedies and pass several dayes in most profane manner though it must be confessed they forget not for all that to say Mass. The world knows how they profane the Chappel of the Colledge of Marmonsteir which they had united to their Colledge at Paris The Rector of the University was obliged to exhibit an information against them upon his own view of the disorder having found in one part of the Chappel a Haberdashers shop and the rest full of Hey for the horses of a person of quality their Pensioner Since that time I have seen men at work there to dress up a Theatre and prepare Machines for a Ballad which we must have learnt in the Chappel or gone all day in search of the Dancing Master who practised there only and was not permitted to come into their Colledge for fear of disturbing their repose and troubling their exercises I know not whether they finde these means very proper to incline men to prayer and inspire them with compunction for their sinns But to me who have not studied Divinity in their School nothiâ—g appears so opposite to the Spirit of Christ and the instructions he left us for prayer For our Divine Master in the sixth of St. Matthew commands us when we would pray to enter a private place and shut to the door that we may be separated from the
world and appear only to God which rule ought to be observed as far as possibly it may in publick prayers as we see many Religious Communities pray with the same sedâ—te and composed tranquility of mind in their Quires as they would in their private Chambers and Oratories as being together but one body and one spirit They chaunt so together that thâ—y make but one voice and and hear not one another but when it is necessary to continue the Chaunt and to render their prayers more efficacious by joyning with their brethren in supplication Besides when they Chaunt all their words are intelligible that their thoughts may be imployed and taken up in attending the sense and filled with the affections of David in the composure of the Psalms Thus the Chartreus and other Orders of Religion retaining their primitive purity and simplicity of spirit have nothing in their Churches to scatter and dissipate their thoughts and meditations nothing to ravish their eyes and their eares and to draw away their hearts from minding their devotions to gaze on fine fights and wander in vanities The like may be observed in such of our Cathedrals wherein according to the ancient simplicity as there is nothing wanting that may be necessary for the decent performance of the external worship of God so we find not there such numbers of superfluous Ornaments that serve only to amuse grossie and carnal spirits and earthly dispositions Such simplicity and modesty please not the Iesuites they must have something to quicken the senses and whereas Christ Commands us to offer our Prayers in the most private retirements of our houses from the bottom of our hearts to prevent the distractions of our straying and wanton senses these Fathers invite us to enter their Churches to see and hear thing to ravish our eyes and tickle our ears but to empty our hearts of all affections of devotion and render us incapable to pray with Reverence and Attention In the mean time they glory in their shame and triumph in that which ought to be their confusion they rejoyce in these practises for which they should mourn and prove by experience that men are so wretched that there 's nothing so ridiculous nothing so contemptible but may serve to flatter the vanity of their humours and raise up in their fancies mountains of pride Had we leisure to examine that intire Volume composed by Alegambe of the names of their Authors it would be a fresh instance of their vanity and pride Can any thing be more ridiculous than to amass an infinite number of names of pitifull Books and more pitifull Authors to make the world believe their Society is full of extraordinary men What Glory was it for the company to have produced those innumerable Casuists who have corrupted all Christian Morality and turned topsie turvy the Maxims of the Gospel as Samâ—ies Tambouâ—in Escobar Castro Palao Banny Guimenius c What glory to have produced Divinâ—s who have extolled themselves above the Fathers and their Authority to bring their own profane and ridiculous Novelties in Credit as Molina Poza Garasse c. have done Is it not a shame that they have permitted those scosting Companions those ill-made Spirits of their Fathers Binet Monk and Barry to write Books so intirely ridiculous Are they not struck with prodigious and irrecoverable blindness to boast of those works they have composed against the sacred persons of Kings and of Bishops and to own those mischievous Books which were published under feigned names and deserved censure as soon as they came forth as those of Seribanius Smith and Mariana Lastly What reason have they to insert in the Catalogue of their Works those books they have stollen from others whereof their Father Abbot and others have been often convicted But though this be common among these good Fathers and every dayes practice I will content my self at present with one example by which it will appear they spare not their best friends but are ever ready to do them any injury which may afford them the least hope of Glory 'T is notorious to the world that in the process they maintained against the University of Paris M. De Monthelon whose name is famcus in the Parliament of Paris defended their Cause against M. De la Martiliere and that this later having published his Argument in Print M. De Monthelon published his also There 's no man but thinks it the misfortune so good an Advocate to have undertaken so bad a Cause but the misfortune was greater to have Clients so ingrate as the Iesuites proved to him For is it not strange these Fathers should envy their Advocate the glory of having defended them and attribute the Argument he published to their F. Cotton and should have the boldness to do it in the life-time of M. de Monthelon their Advocates Nephew who can when he pleases convince them of falshood by producing the Original of the Printed Argument all of his deceased Unkles hand-writing That I may not be thought to impose on these Fathers hear the very words of Alegambe the Iesuite in his Bibliotheque of the Writers of their Society pag. 379. col 2. Where speaking of F. Cotton he saith Edidit Apologiam pro Societate contra Martellerum sub nomine Montoloâ—ii He published an Apology for the Society against Martellier under the name of Monthelon Certainly the Pharisees of the Old Law never did the like nor were guilty of a vanity so malignant and Ridiculous Artifices and Violences of the Jesuites of Almaign to take from Religious Orders several considerable Abbyes and Priories Stories on this subject taken out of the Memorial of F. Paul William Vicar Generall of the Order of Cluny Presented to the FRENCH Councell in 1654. Against the Rector of the three Colledges of Jesuites at Selestat Enâ—isheim and Fribourg in Brisgau OF The Three Priories in Alsatia usurped by the Jesuites from the Order of St. Benedict And First Of the Priory of St. Valentine of Ruffach taken away violently by vertue of Bulls against Bulls THe three Priories Conventuals of St. Valentine St. Iames and St. Morand are of ancient foundation between five and six hundred years standing belonging to the Order of St. Benedict and holding of France though all three situate in Alsatia and in the Diocese of Basil. The first stands in the Town of Ruffach parcel of the temporalties of the Bishop of Strasbourg the second in the Village of Veldbach and the third neer the town of Altkirk in the Countrey reunited to France by the Treaty of the peace of Allemaigne The first depends on the Abby of Chesy and the two last on that of Cluny the full right of collating being in the Abbots and preserved without interruption and the Prioryes alwayes possessed by Benedictines of the Nation of France The Priory of St. Valentine was founded about the eleventh Century by two Monks of the Abby of Chesy in the Diocese of Soissons assisted by
that they obtained any thing since 1649. when I left them at Madrid soliciting this affair Certain it is that the Jesuites were strangely insolent who having caused the Revolt of Portugal would have taken other mens Estates who had no share in the Guilt of that Rebellion They turn a Water from its Channell and build â— Mill thereupon in one night P. 388. I am so troubled with these things that I would quit Granada very willingly but am stopped by the way by the memorable story of the Mill which the Jesuites of the Colledge of Granada caused to be built at St. Foy two leagues from the City The better to comprehend what I am to say we must look back to the time of King Ferdinand and Q. Isabelle These pious Princes Graciously granted the first Inhabitants of St. Foy for them and their Successors permission to draw a Channell from the River Genil to flood their Grounds by a Water-course with condition that none should make use thereof without their consent The Iesuites had several years longed for the possession of this Channell and had used a thousand artifices and addresses to that purpose but in vain by reason of the constant opposition of the Inhabitants of the Town who had alwayes made a vigorous resistance The Jesuites were loth to intreat persons so inexorable and took a resolution worthy the Society in confidence of protection in this as in other affairs from the Chancery of Granada the rather because they had already possessed with the business and made sure to their side almost all the Judges of the Chamber who were to take cognizance of the cause They bought a pitifull piece of Ground contiguous to the Territory of St. Foy and not farr from the Channell whereof they designed to make themselves so absolute Masters that the Inhabitants of the Town should not take of the waters without their permission F. Fonseea then Rector of the Colledge had a Lay-brother a Great Architect whom he commanded to make a Mill of wood and dispose of all the Carpenters work so as in an hour to be erected and made fit to grinde which was accordingly done and the Timber Milstones and other things necessary carryed in Carts to the piece of ground above-mentioned In the evening they sent thither several servants of their house and the Farms they have in those quarters These workmen instructed by the Iesuite made a water-course on that side where the Mill was to be built and laboured with such diligence in the trench and the Iesuite plyed his part in erecting the mill so nimbly that at Eleven a Clock in the Evening it turned and ground as if it had stood there several years The Iesuites brought with them a Notary whom they payd well and he in acknowledgement gave them an act importing he had seen the Mill grinde in their Land without contradiction and took the depositions of above twenty witnesses who said the same thing The Fathers thought that being thus in possession and otherwise assured of the Judges no man in the world could out them from thence 'T was hardly light the next day but the Inhabitants of St. Foy understood all that past The sight of their walls built by K. Ferdinand and Q. Isabel their Founders in a night prevented their Astonishment at the nimble erecting of the Mill They called an Assembly and by the command of one of their Civil Officers a man of spirit and courage now a Priest called Thomas Muros they went to the Mill rased it to the ground and filling the new trench with rubbish turned back the water into the Ancient Channell The Iesuites seeing their Mill destroyed made their Complaints in the Chancery of Granada treated the Inhabitants of St. Foy with great insolence and in pursuance of the instructions received of their Advocates and procurators exhibited an information which they had caused to be drawn of the peaceable possession of their Mill. The Audience of Granada caused the Inhabitants of St. Foy to be cited and some to be arrested They spent much money in the suit and scaped but narrowly from being condemned by the Judges to rebuild the Mill at their own charges But D. Paul Vasquez de Aguilar one of the Judges shewed himself so Generous in defence of the Inhabitants that the rest seeing they had not reason on their side durst not contradict him and in conclusion gave the Iesuites a Reprimande at least check'd their Proctors condemned them to pay costs enlarged the prisoners and approved of all that had been done They coyn many millions of Money for one P. 389. When I was at Malaga sayes the Author they kept such a noise with their hammers and so unseasonably that I could not sleep From thence I went to Salamanca where I understood that the Iesuites coyned Money by permission of King Philip the 3 d for one million to serve for the building of their magnificent Colledge in that City They were not content with one million but coyned above three but the pieces of four Maravedis were so small that they were commonly called the Iesuites Money The pleasantness of it is that if the King upon information of their insolence had not prohibited them they had continued their work and would have been coyning of this million till Doomsday Hence came that abundance of their Money in Spain whereof the King was obliged again and again to lessen the value to the great dammage of the Kingdom for which they are in some measure beholding to the Iesuites A Jesuite makes his Penitent relapse into his Crime by presenting him with the picture of a Lady he had loved and forgot P. 244. There is a Maxim among their secret advices for proof whereof the Author reports this story The Maxim is That in the Guidance of the Consciences of Great ones they are to follow the loosest opinions By this they introduce and preserve themselves in favour and render themselves acceptable by their complaisance A very rich Gentleman falling sick confessed to a Iesuite and among other sins accused himself of the love he bore to a Lady whose picture he had for a pledge of Affection which expecting to dye he bestowed on his Confessor The Gentleman recovered and repented of his fault so sincerely that he intirely forgot the person who had caused it and thought no more of the Iesuite But the Father deâ—irous to renew his acquaintance went to see him when recovered and discoursing of his sickness spake to him of the Lady mentioned in his Confession and returned him her picture This putting the Gentleman in minde of the Lady whom he had quite defaced out of his memory he returned to his vomit and persisted in it long What shall we say of these Maxims and practices of the Iesuites but that they will destroy the Church Religion and the Sacraments if it may serve their interest And that the least temporal advantage shall prevail more over their spirit than all the Laws of