f'$4 CHARACTER. OP THE LAST 



pope. He was abufed as a fpurious pontif defied by 

 means of limony ; as a tyrant who perfecuted the chil-r 

 dren of St. Ignatius with fuch unrelenting cruelty for 

 no other reafon than that he might get their goods into 

 his poffeffion, and gratify the monarchs whofe minds 

 he had poifoned againft them. The like infamous 

 fcurrilities were propagated by the jefuits even in the 

 convents of nuns ; fo that no clafs of perfons was left 

 unprejudiced againft the worthy Ganganelli. To inti- 

 midate him from pronouncing the definitive fentence, 

 they fent him a letter in an unknown hand, which con- 

 tained nothing more than the four letters of the alpha- 

 bet P. S. S. V. [Prefto fara fede vacante, the papal 

 throne will fhortly be vacant.] the lignification whereof 

 was apparent on the firft infpe&ion. 



From thefe hoftile manoeuvres the pope faw himfelf 

 obliged, on publifhing the bull by which the fociety 

 * was abolifhed, to have recourfe to the fame precautions 

 which are ufed in times of the moft alarming feditions. 

 The colleges were unrounded by foldiers, and the 

 ftreets were befet with purfuivants and halbardiers, to 

 prevent infurrection and tumult. This mark of dif- 

 grace, by which fuch a number of worthy perfons, as 

 doubtlefs that order contained, were treated as dange- 

 rpus infurgents, muft have pierced their very fouls 

 with affliction. For this, cutting calamity they had no 

 one to thank but their impolitic general. He him- 

 felf was arrefted as a malefactor, and fhut up in the 

 caftle of St. Angelo, where he was fometimes more fe-* 

 verely and fometimes more gently treated, according 

 to his change of behaviour. 



Whe$ 



