738 



JESUITS. 



Jesuit?, narchical. A general, chosen for life by deputies from 

 T""' the several provinces, possessed supreme and indepen- 

 dent power, extending to every person, and applying 

 to every case. By his sole authority he nominated or 

 removed every officer employed in the government of 

 the society. He administered at pleasure the revenues 

 of the order ; and disposed of every member by his 

 uncontroulable mandate, assigning whatever service, 

 and imposing whatever task he pleased. To his com- 

 mands they were required not only to yield outward 

 obedience, but to resign to his direction the inclinations 

 of their wills, and the sentiments of their understand- 

 ings. Every member of the order, the instant that he 

 entered its pale, surrendered all freedom of thought 

 and action ; and every personal feeling was superseded 

 by the interests of that body to which he had attached 

 himself. He went wherever he was ordered; he per- 

 formed whatever he was commanded; he suffered 

 whatever he was enjoined ; he became a mere passive 

 instrument, incapable of resistance. The gradation of 

 ranks was only a gradation in slavery ; and so perfect 

 a despotism over a large body of men, dispersed over 

 the face of the earth, was never before realised. To 

 render the subordination more complete, and to enable 

 the general to avail himself to the utmost of his abso- 

 lute dominion, he was provided with effectual means 

 of perfectly ascertaining the characters and abilities of 

 the agents under his controul. Every novice, who of- 

 fered himself as a candidate for admission into the or- 

 der, was required to manifest his conscience to the supe- 

 rior, or to a person of his appointment ; and not only 

 to confess his defects and vices, but to discover the in- 

 clinations, passions, and bent of his soul. This mani- 

 festation was renewed every sixth month during the 

 novitiate, which was of considerable length ; and every 

 member was also constituted a spy upon the candi- 

 dates, whose words and actions, and every thing of im- 

 portance concerning them, he was bound to disclose to 

 the superior. They were required, under this scrutiny, 

 to pass through several gradations of rank, and to have 

 attained the full age of thirty-three years, before they 

 were permitted to take the final vows, and to become 

 professed members. The superiors, under whose im- 

 mediate inspection they were placed, were thus tho- 

 roughly acquainted with their dispositions and talents ; 

 and the most minute details of every one's character 

 and capabilities were regularly transmitted to the head 

 office at Rome. These reports were digested and en- 

 tered into registers, where the general could survey at 

 one view the state of the society in every quarter of 

 the world ; the qualifications and talents of its mem- 

 bers ; and the kind of instruments awaiting his selec- 

 tion for any department in the service. The number 

 of these reports, from the whole thirty- seven provinces 

 of the order, have been calculated at 65-,4- annually. 

 Besides these, there may be " extraordinary letters," 

 or such as are sent by the monitors or spies in each 

 house ; and the provinces were farther bound to state 

 the civil and political circumstances of the various 

 countries where they had their residence. These state- 

 ments, when relating to matters of importance, were 

 conveyed by a particular cypher known only to the ge- 

 neral. The situation and interests of every department 

 were thus intimately known by the head of the whole 

 body ; and the employment of every individual mem- 

 ber was precisely adapted to his faculties. The mean- 

 est talents were in requisition ; and, according to their 

 own expression, " the Jesuits had missionaries for the 

 villages, and martyrs for the Indians." There was thus a 



peculiarenergy imparted to the operations of this singular Jesuits, 

 society ; which hag been compared to a system of me- s ~v ^ 

 chanism, containing the greatest possible quantity of 

 power distributed to the greatest possible advantage. 

 " The Jesuits," it was said with justice, " are a naked 

 sword, whose hilt is at Rome." 



The maxims of policy adopted by this celebrated so- its maxims 

 ciety were, like its constitution, remarkable for their and spirit. 

 union of laxity and rigour. Nothing could divert them 

 from their original object ; and ne means were ever 

 scrupled, which promised to aid its accomplishment. 

 They were in no degree shackled by prejudice, super* 

 stition, or real religion. Expediency, in its most simple 

 and licentious form, was the basis of their morals, and 

 their principles and practices were uniformly accommo- 

 dated to the circumstances in which they were placed ; 

 and even their bigotry, obdurate as it was, never appears 

 to have interfered with their interests. The paramount 

 and characteristic principle of the order, i'rom which 

 none of its members ever swerved, was simply this, 

 that its interests were to be promoted by all possible 

 means, at all possible expences. In order to acquire 

 more easily an ascendancy over persons of rank and 

 power, they propagated a system of the most relax- 

 ed morality, which accommodated itself to the pas 

 sions of men, justified their vices, tolerated their im- 

 perfections, and authorised almost every action, which 

 the most audacious or crafty politician would wish 

 to perpetrate. To persons of stricter principles they 

 studied to recommend themselves by the purity of their 

 lives, and sometimes by the austerity of their doctrines. 

 While sufficiently compliant in the treatment of im- 

 moral practices, they were generally rigidly severe in 

 exacting a strict orthodoxy in opinions. " They are a 

 sort of people," said the Abbe Boileau, "who lengthen 

 the creed and shorten the decalogue." 



They adopted the same spirit of accommodation in Missions, 

 their missionary undertakings ; and their Christianity, 

 cameleon-like, readily assumed the colour of every re- 

 gion, where it happened to be introduced. They freely 

 permitted their converts to retain a full proportion, 

 of the old superstitions, and suppressed without he- 

 sitation any point in the new faith, which was likely 

 to bear hard on their prejudices, or propensities. They 

 proceeded to still greater lengths; and, besides sup- 

 pressing the truths of revelation, devised the most ab- 

 surd falsehoods, to be used for attracting disciples, or 

 even to be taught as parts of Christianity. One of 

 them, in India, produced a pedigree to prove his own 

 descent from Brama ; and another in America assured 

 a native chief that Christ had been a valiant and vic- 

 torious warrior, who, in the space of three years, had 

 scalped an incredible number of men, women, and chil- 

 dren. It was in fact their own authority, not the autho- 

 rity of true religion, wlrch they wished to establish ; and 

 Christianity was generally as little known, when they 

 quitted the foreign scenes of their labours as when 

 they entered them. 



But the most singular regulations, which principal- secret rules, 

 ly contributed to extend the power of the Jesuits, and 

 to form that enterprising and intriguing spirit by which 

 they were distinguished, were long unknown to the 

 rest of mankind, and were concealed with a degree of 

 care, which might alone have excited the worst suspi- 

 cions of their nature. It was their favourite maxim, 

 from their first institution, never to publish even the 

 ordinary rules and registers of the order. These were 

 preserved, as an impenetrable mystery, not only from 

 strangers, but even from the greater part of their own 



