JESUITS. 



741 



<ler, was convicted of composing writings favourable to 

 regicide. The parliaments seized the moment of their 

 disgrace, mnd procured their banishment from every 

 part of the kingdom, except the provinces of Bourdeaux 

 and Toulouse. From these rallying points, they speed- 

 ily extended their intrigues in every quarter, and in a 

 iew years obtained their re-establishment. Even Hen. 

 ry, either dreading their power, or pleased with the 

 exculpation of his licentious habits, which he found in 

 their flexible system of morality, became their patron, 

 and selected one of their number as his confessor. 

 They were favoured by Louis XIII. and his minister 

 Richelieu, on account of their literary exertions ; but it 

 was in the succeeding reign of Louis XIV". that they 

 reached the summit of their prosperity. The Fathers 

 La Chaise and Le Teltier, were successively confessors 

 to the king ; and did not fail to employ their influence 

 for the interest of their order ; but the latter carried on 

 his projects with so blind and fiery a zeal, that one of 

 the Jesuits is reported to have said of him, " he drives 

 at such a rate, that he will overturn us all." The Jan- 

 seniits were peculiarly the objects of his machinations, 

 and he rested not till be had accomplished the destruc- 

 tion of their celebrated college and convent at Port 

 Itoyal. Before the fall, however, of this honoured se- 

 minary, a shaft from its bow had reached the heart of 

 its proud oppressor. The " Provincial Letters of Pascal" 

 bad been published, in which the quibbling morality 

 and unintelligible metaphysics of the Jesuit* were ex- 

 posed in a strain of inimitable humour, and a style of 

 unrivalled leganc The impression which they pro- 

 duced was wide and deep, and gradually sapped the 

 foundation of public opinion, on which the power of 

 the order had hitherto rested. Under the regency of 

 the Duke of Orleans, the Jesuits, and all theological 

 personages and principles were disregarded with athe- 

 ess; but under Louis XV. they part- 

 ~ - s at court, which, even under 



Cardinal 



i Fleurjr, they retained in a considerable degree. 

 But they soon revived the odium of the public by their 

 intolerant treatment of the Janseniits, and probably ac- 

 celerated their rain by refusing, from political rather 

 than religiou* scruples, to undertake the spiritual gui- 

 dance of Madame de la Pompadour, as well as by im- 

 prudently attacking the authors of the Encyclopcdie. 

 Voltaire directed agairut them all the powers of his ri- 

 dicule, and finished the piece which Pascal had sketch- 

 ed. Their power was brought to a very low ebb, when 

 the war of 1 756 broke out, which occasioned the fa. 

 nous law.suit 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, irrita- 

 ted the philosophers by their clamours, exasperated the 

 other religious orders by their persecutions, and aliena- 

 ted 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 popu- 

 lar or formidable. The opportunity was soon furnish. 

 ed by their own impudent obstinacy. The war recent- 

 ly commenced, had occasioned great losses in their 

 trade with Martinico, the weight of which would have 

 fallen in part upon the society's correspondents at 

 Lyons and Marseilles. These merchants, however, al- 

 leged that the Jesuit* in France were responsible for 

 the debt* of their missionaries in America, and insisted 



upon being indemnified from the funds of the order. 

 The claim was resisted, and a law suit 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 dimi- 

 nished, and their enemies encouraged to renewed at- 

 tacks. The questions at issue in the commercial dis- 

 pute, 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. By an 

 arret of the llth August 1761, the Jesuits were requi- 

 red to appear at the end of a year to receive judgment 

 on their constitution, which, it was now discovered, had 

 never been approved with the requisite forms. In the 

 mean time the king of Portugal was assassinated ; and 

 Carvalho, the minister, who detested the Jesuits, found 

 means to load them with the odium of the crime. Mala- 

 grida, and a few more of these fathers, were charged 

 with advising and absolving the assassins, and having 

 been found guilty, were condemned to the stake. The 

 rest were banished with every brand of infamy, and 

 were treated with the most iniquitous cruelty. They 

 were persecuted without discrimination, robbed of their 

 property without pity, and embarked for Italy without 

 previous preparation ; so that no provision having been 

 made for their reception, they were literally left to pe. 

 rish with hunger in their vessels. These incidents pre- 

 pared the way for a similar catastrophe in France. Du- 

 ring the year allotted for the investigation of their rules 

 and records, the court evinced a disposition to protect 

 them, and the bishops declared unanimously in their fa. 

 vour ; but an unforeseen public calamity rendered it ne- 

 cessary to appease the nation by some acceptable mea- 

 sure; and the Jesuits, after all, are supposed to have 

 been sacrificed more as a trick of state than as an act of 

 justice. 



In March 1762, the French court received intelli- 

 gence of the capture of Martinico by the British ; and 

 dreading a storm of public indignation, resolved to 

 divert the exasperated ieelings of the nation, by yield- 

 ing the Jesuits to their impending fate. On the 6th 

 of August 1762, their 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 ef- 

 fects alienated. But still the members, though no long- 

 er dressed in their religious habit, continued to hover 

 about the court ; and, had they preserved their origi- 

 nal cautions and patient policy, might have succeeded 

 in recovering their privileges. But former successes 

 inspired them with a fatal confidence. One of the arch- 

 bishops, 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, whe- 

 ther 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 



Jesuits. 



See also La Morolt Pratipit dti Jetuitt, per Arnauld. 



