sow dissention among the heretics there. This letter being shown to the bishop, he ordered Heth to be apprehended; and he was brought to an examination, in which he shuffled not a little. "After his examination," says my author, "it was resolved to send to Heth's lodgings, at the Queen's Arms in Rochester, where, upon search, in one of his boots were found his beads, and several papers, among which was a license from the fraternity of the Jesuits, and a bull dated the first of Pius Quintus, to preach what doctrine that society pleased for the dividing of Protestants, particularly naming the English Protestants by the name of heretics. In his trunk were found several books for denying baptism to infants, with several other horrid blasphemies, which being brought before the whole assembly then present, the bishop adjourned the court, appointing another day for farther investigation, till they had acquainted her majesty and her honourable council with these passages, and sent for farther instructions how to proceed in the affair. In the mean time Heth was committed a close prisoner, and manacled, till order came from the board."

When Heth was called again into court, the bishop addressed him in a very solemn manner, pointing out the wickedness of his conduct. It appeared by the evidence of the persons with whom he had lodged, that, in order to remove suspicion of his being a Jesuit, he spake against that order; and by his own confession, it was his practice to preach against Rome, by which he knew he would readily command a hearing; yet all this was with a view to subvert the reformation and restore popery. The poor man suffered the reward of his treachery by being three days exposed on the pillory at Rochester, and being subjected to other cruel indignities, which I would not wish the most wicked Jesuit of the present age to suffer. He was condemned to perpetual imprisonment; but he died in the course of a few months. Here I cannot for-` bear quoting the concluding part of the bishop's address to the court, on the conviction of this Jesuit, as the words seem not inapplicable to our own times. Therefore, my brethren, consider the condition of your souls. If you start aside once from your principles, having the right way so plainly set before you, you will not only run into popish slavery again, but be in peril of a total confusion of soul and body; and if Rome get once her foot upon these dominions again, not only yourselves and your children, but your princes and nobles shall become slaves to her idolatry."

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CHAPTER CXLI.

NOTICE OF "DALLAS' DEFENCE" OF THE JESUITS. HISTORY OF THEIR DECLINE AND SUPPRESSION. THEY EXISTED NOTWITHSTANDING. THEIR REVIVAL BY THE PRESENT POPE. REMARKS FROM THE ORTHODOX JOURNAL. SCRUPLES OF JESUITS, HOW RELIEVED. HOPES OF PAPISTS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

SATURDAY, March 24th, 1821. My last number gave a short sketch of the rise, progress, character, and power of the Jesuits. I might go a great deal more into detail in these matters; but this is the less necessary, seeing a work has lately been published, which affords the most ample information on the sub

ject. It is entitled, "A History of the Jesuits: to which is prefixed, a Reply to Mr. Dallas' Defence of that Order," in two volumes, London, 1816. Who Mr. Dallas is, I do not know, but from the extracts of his work, which are given in the reply, I suppose he is himself a Jesuit. He does, in a most Jesuitical manner, slur over every thing that militates against the character of the society, and endeavours to make them appear the most meritorious body that ever was in the world. The task which he undertook was sufficiently arduous, and one in which no ordinary man could be expected to succeed; and Mr. Dallas himself found it impossible to succeed in it, without applying a spunge to almost all that has been written for two hundred and fifty years, on the ecclesiastical, and even the civil affairs of Europe, except what was written by the Jesuits and their admirers. This is one of the ways in which Papists endeavour to screen themselves from the scorn and contempt of the world. They deny every historical fact recorded by Protestant historians that bears the least reflection upon their church; and though the names of fifty witnesses were adduced, all must go for nothing, because they are enemies of the "Catholic faith." This, in the opinion of the Jesuits, disqualifies any man from giving a true or credible testimony; and thus, by denying the truth of all history, except what it suits himself to admit, Mr. Dallas finds the Jesuits a most meritorious, and much injured body of men.

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I come now to relate the story of the decline and fall of this powerful body, together with their recent restoration by the present pope, and before I have done with them, I may give a sketch of their morals from their Secreta Monita. Though the power of the Jesuits had become so extensive, and though their interests generally prospered during a period of more than two centuries, their progress was by no means uninterrupted; and by their own misconduct, they soon excited the most formidable counteractions. Scarcely had they effected their establishment in France, in defiance of the parliaments and universities, when their existence was endangered by the fanaticism of their own members. John Chastel, one of their pupils, made an attempt upon the life of Henry IV.; and Father Guiscard, another of the order, was convicted of composing writings favourable to regicide."

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Their power was brought to a very low ebb, when the war of 1756 broke out, which occasioned the famous lawsuit that led to their final overthrow. By that time the society had indicated many symptoms of decay, both in point of talents and activity, and had rendered themselves at once contemptible and odious. They had disgusted the court by their scruples, irritated the philosphers by their clamours, exasperated the other religious orders by their persecutions, and alienated the public by their long and insolent domination. A reasonable pretext was all that was wanted to put down a sect which had long ceased to be either popular or formidable. The opportunity was soon furnished by their own imprudent obstinacy. The war recently commenced, had occasioned great losses in their trade with Martinico, (for the Jesuits were merchants upon a very great scale,) the weight of which would have fallen in part upon the society's correspondents at Lyons and Marseilles. The merchants, however, alleged that the Jesuits in France were responsible for the debts of their missionaries in America, and insisted upon being indemnified from the funds of the order. The claim was

resisted, and a lawsuit commenced, which the Jesuits, by virtue of their privilege, removed from the provincial parliament to the great chamber at Paris. This measure rendered the dispute, and their defeat, subjects of more general notoriety. They were condemned to pay large sums to the adverse party, and prohibited thenceforth from meddling in commercial concerns. The sources of their wealth were thus diminished, and their enemies encouraged to renewed attacks. The questions at issue in the commercial dispute, had given the magistrates a plausible occasion for demanding to inspect the constitutions of the society; and in a luckless hour for themselves, they consented to produce their books. The parliament instantly saw, and seized the advantage which they had gained, and resolved to effect the destruction of the order."

"In March 1762, the French court received intelligence of the capture of Martinico by the British; and dreading the storm of public indignation, resolved to divert the exasperated feelings of the nation, by yielding the Jesuits to their impending fate."-I must confess that this itself was very like a Jesuitical trick. It would have been more honourable for the French government to have condemned the Jesuits upon the ground of their own demerits, than to have made them a sacrifice to appease popular clamour; but this is a point which Papists may settle among themselves. "On the 6th of August, 1762, their (the Jesuits,) institute was condemned by the parliament, as contrary to the laws of the state, to the obedience due to the sovereign, and to the welfare of the kingdom. The order was dissolved, and their effects alienated. But still the members, though no longer dressed in their religious habit, continued to hover about the court; and had they preserved their original cautious and prudent policy, might have succeeded in recovering their privileges. But former successes inspired them with a fatal confidence. One of the archbishops, indignant that the parliament should presume to dispense with ecclesiastical vows, issued a mandate in favour of the Jesuits, and the fathers were accused of having employed themselves too industriously in the circulation of this paper. The parliament took the alarm, and pronounced a decree, that every Jesuit, whether professor or novice, should, within eight days make oath that he renounced the institution, or quit the kingdom. In a body whose moral principles were so relaxed, and whose members, while it existed, scrupled no subtleties in promoting its interests, it is a remarkable circumstance, that, as secularized individuals, they acted in this instance with strict integrity, and refused the alternative of the oath. They were, therefore, ordered to quit the kingdom, and this judgment was executed with the utmost rigour. The poor, the aged, the sick, were included in the general proscription. But in certain quarters where the provincial parliaments had not decided against them, Jesuits still subsisted; and a royal edict was afterwards promulgated, which formally abolished the society in France, but permitted its members to reside within the kingdom with certain restrictions.

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"In Spain, where they conceived their establishment to be perfectly secure, they experienced an overthrow equally complete, and more unexpected." The example of the king of Spain was immediately followed by Ferdinand VI. of Naples, and soon after by the princes of Parma. They had been expelled from England in 1604; from Venice in 1606; and from Portugal in 1759, upon the charge of having insti

gated the families of Tavora and D'Aveiro to assassinate King Joseph I. Frederick the Great, of Prussia, was the only monarch who showed a disposition to afford them protection; but in 1773, the order was entirely suppressed by Pope Clement XIV., who is supposed to have fallen a victim to their vengeance. It was long a current story at Rome, that this pontiff was accustomed to withdraw in the course of the grand mass to take some refreshment; and that a young priest, on one of these occasions, brought chocolate to his holiness, and immediately withdrew; that the proper officiating priest soon after appeared with another cup, the pope shook his head, as conscious of having received a fatal potion; that he pined from that day of a lingering disease which reduced his body to the appearance of a skeleton; and that he was known to have said, in allusion to the secret cause of his death, 'I am going to eternity, and I know for what!"" Edin. Ency. art. Jesuits.

"The history of the Jesuits from the period of their suppression to their revival by the present pope, lies within a very narrow compass. That they have by any means ceased to exist as individuals, although they have done so as a body, will hardly have been imagined for a moment, even by those who possess the fewest means of information on the subject. They have still survived, in obscurity-the ghosts of their departed greatness-in reduced numbers—with diminished resources, and an exhausted credit; hating, indeed, to look back upon their former flourishing condition, but not without hope that, so long as popery should maintain her footing in the world, and especially, if ever she should resume any considerable portion of her ancient power, they could not fail to be recognised by all who were not thoroughly acquainted with their history, as the most vigilant and active friends of the church of Rome. The event has shown that they have not been disappointed. In spite of all the quarrels of that church with the Jesuits; in spite of the mutual struggle for pre-eminence which has been ever maintained between them; their agency is still too important to be overlooked or despised by that mystical woman of the apocalypse, who has her seat upon the seven mountains. There is still too much in common between the two systems; their corruptions are too nearly allied, and their interests too closely interwoven, to render it a matter of small import whether the Jesuits shall be again invoked by papal Rome as her auxi liaries, or not: the influence of light in the world is too strong-the diffusion of the Bible has become too general-and the increase of true religion, in consequence, is too certain, to permit a church which loves darkness rather than light, to neglect all the means which lie within her reach, to establish and perpetuate her own system of ignorance and error, by those friends and agents, whose interests are in the main identified with their own.

The present pope could not be ignorant that the same causes which led to the formation of the society, were at this moment in active operation throughout the world, and therefore appeared to require the application of the same remedy. The order of Jesuits,' says Villers, 'the most important of all the orders, was placed in opposition to the reformation, and it acquired a preponderance proportioned to the enormous mass which it was intended to counterbalance.' It is with reference to the same great object of opposing the reformation, that the present pope

has declared that he should 'deem himself guilty of a great crime towards God, if, amidst the dangers of the Christian republic,' (in other words, the cause of popery,) he should neglect to employ the aids which the special providence of God had put in his power, and, if placed in the bark of St. Peter, and tossed by continual storms, he should refuse to employ the vigorous and experienced rowers who volunteer their services!!! It is in vain that the advocates of his holiness will contend that he desired the aid of the Jesuits against infidelity; for where is the danger to be apprehended from infidelity now? It is against the Protestant church and cause that the Jesuits, those 'experienced rowers,' have now embarked afresh, and it is chiefly with refer ence to their assistance in making head against the vessel of the refor mation that the pope has availed himself of their services. Hist. Jesuits, vol. ii. p. 394.

It is not difficult to perceive that the pope, by the restoration of the order of Jesuits, meant no favour to those Protestant powers, particularly Great Britain, who had been the chief instrument of his preservation, in the days of his humiliation, under the iron yoke of Bonaparte. It belongs to the nature of popery not to feel grateful for favours received from heretics. The fact is, there is nothing that heretics can confer upon Papists that will be considered as a favour. Papists consider themselves the lords of the soil wherever they have at any time had an establishment; and whatever service Protestants may render them, it is never considered as a favour, but as a debt which was justly due. Thus for all the kindness which was exercised in making provision for Romish priests in this country, on the breaking out of the French revolution, when they were banished from their homes, we have been requited by an establishment of Jesuits in the heart of the country; and, as if this were not enough, his holiness issues a bull restoring the order, which, in every country in Europe, had been suppressed as an insufferable nuisance, to all their former powers and privileges, that they may promote popery in England, and wherever else they may obtain a footing. The pope will say that this is for the good of those countries, and of England in particular, and thus he may acquit himself of the charge of ingratitude; but persons who understand the subject, will consider the affected benevolence of his holiness, as resembling the good will of a wolf, who has a great affection for a flock of sheep.

The pope says he would think himself guilty of a crime, if he were not to enlist in the service of the church, those "experienced rowers, who volunteer their services;" that is, who offer themselves voluntarily, to go into all the world, particularly into Britain and Ireland, to endea vour to overturn the Protestant religion, which is the same thing as true Christianity, and to establish, instead of it, the abominable superstition and idolatry of Rome. This is the object of these "experienced rowers." The society was originally formed for the express purpose of putting down the reformation; and its restoration, after being dormant for half a century, is for the purpose of extirpating what remains of real Christianity in Protestant countries.

Much as England was annoyed by the Jesuits, in the reign of Elizabeth, and for nearly a century thereafter, the impression of the evil is almost effaced from our minds. We have seen little of the order with our own eyes, and we have felt little of their impertinent interference in VOL. II-31