788 J E S 
were extinguished. A few magistrates, chofen by the In¬ 
dians tliemSelves, watched over the public tranquillity, 
and fecured obedience to the laws. The fanguinary pu- 
nilhments frequent under other governments were un¬ 
known. An admonition from a Jefuit, a flight mark of 
infamy, or, on forne lingular occafion, a few' lathes with a 
whip, were fuffic'ient to maintain good order among thefe 
innocent and happy people. 
But even in thefe meritorious efforts of the Jefuits 
for the good of mankind, the genius and fpirit of their 
order were mingled, and are difcernible. They plainly 
aimed at eftablilhing in Paraguay an independent empire, 
•SubjeCt to the Society alone, and which, by the fuperior 
excellence of its constitution and police, could fcarcely 
have failed to extend its dominion over all the fouthern 
continent of America. With this view, in order to pre¬ 
vent the Spaniards or Portuguefe in the adjacent fettle- 
ments from acquiring any dangerous influence over the 
people within the limits of the province fubjeCt to the So¬ 
ciety, the Jefuits endeavoured to infpire the Indians with 
hatred and contempt of thefe nations. They cut off all 
intercourfe between their Subjects and the Spanish or Por¬ 
tuguefe fettlements. They prohibited any private trader 
of either nation from entering their territories. When 
they were obliged to admit any perfon in a public cha¬ 
racter from the neighbouring governments, they did not 
permit him to have any converfation with their fubjeCts ; 
and no Indian was allowed even to enter the houfe where 
thefe Strangers refided, unlefs in the prefence of a Jefuit. 
In order to render any communication between them as 
difficult as poflible, they induftrioufly avoided giving the 
Indians any knowledge of the Spanish or of any other 
European language; but encouraged the different tribes 
which they had civilized to acquire a certain dialed of 
the Indian tongue, and laboured to make that the univer- 
fal language throughout their dominions. As all thefe 
precautions, without military force, would have been in- 
fufticient to have rendered their empire fecure and perma¬ 
nent, they inltruCted their S'ubjeCts in the European arts 
of war. They formed them into bodies of cavalry and 
infantry, completely armed and regularly disciplined. 
They provided a great train of artillery, as well as maga¬ 
zines Stored with all the implements of war. Thus they 
established an army fo numerous and well-appointed, as 
to be formidable in a country where a few fickly and ill- 
difciplined battalions compofed all the military torce kept 
,©n foot by the Spaniards or Portuguefe. 
Such were the laws, the policy, and the genius, of this 
formidable order; of which, however, a perfect know¬ 
ledge has only been attainable of late. Europe had ob¬ 
served, for two centuries, the ambition and power of the 
order. But, while it felt many fatal elfeCls of thefe, it 
could not fully dilcern the "caufes to which they were to 
be imputed. It was unacquainted with many of the An¬ 
gular regulations in the political constitution or govern¬ 
ment of the Jefuits, which formed the enterprising fpirit 
of intrigue that distinguished its members, and elevated 
the body itfelf to Such a height of power. It was a fun¬ 
damental maxim with the Jefuits, from their iirft institu¬ 
tion, not to publish the rules of their order. Thefe they 
kept concealed as an impenetrable myStery. They never 
communicated them to Strangers, nor even to the greater 
part of their own members. They refuted to produce 
them when required by courts of juftice ; and, by a ltrange 
folecifm in policy, the civil power in different countries 
authorised or connived at the establishment of an order of 
men, wltofe constitution and laws .were concealed with a 
Solicitude which alone was a good reafon for having ex¬ 
cluded them. During the profecutions carried on againlt 
them in Portugal and France, the Jefuits were lb inconsi¬ 
derate as to produce the mysterious volumes of their in¬ 
stitute. By the aid of thefe authentic records, the prin¬ 
ciples of their government may be delineated, and the 
fources of their pow'er investigated with a degree of cer¬ 
tainty and preciflon which, previous to that event, it was 
2 
U I T. 
impoffible to attain ; and this occasioned their entire flip- 
preflion in France. 
_The pernicious effeCts, however, of the fpirit and con¬ 
stitution of this order, rendered it at length obnoxious to 
molt of the principal powers' in Europe, and gradually 
brought on its downfall. The emperor Charles V. Saw it 
expedient to check its progrefs in his dominions; it was 
-expelled England, by proclamation a James I. in 1604 5 
Venice,'in j606 ; Portugal, 1111759; France, in 1764; 
Spain and Sicily, in 1767 ; and totally fuppreffed and abo¬ 
lished by pope Clement XIV. in 1773. 
The following fummary of the principles of the Jefuits 
is from MonS'. Villers’s (Prize) Effay on the Reformation 
by Luther. Perhaps the famed fchool of Loyola never has 
been better delineated, nor its leading features more ac¬ 
curately marked: 
“It has been already faid, that the Jefuits were intruft- 
ed with the greater part of the public instruction in the 
catholic States. Europe had already tailed of the tree of' 
knowledge ; its light had fpread into all parts, and had 
made a rapid progrefs; it had become impoffible to op- 
pole it openly. The Safeft expedient now was, not to 
combat the fcience, but to get poffeSlion of it, to prevent 
it from being injurious; not being able to Stop the tor¬ 
rent, it was neceffary to dig a channel for it where it 
might fertilize the foil of the church inllead of deltroying 
it. To well-informed adverfaries, therefore, they deter¬ 
mined to oppofe men as well-informed ; the crafty com¬ 
panions of Ignatius were appointed to Satisfy the univer¬ 
sal defire to acquire knowledge manifelted by the age. It 
was here that the inconceivable talent of the new precep¬ 
tors of humanity was difplayed. Their leading maxim 
was to cultivate and bring to the higheSl poffible degree 
of perfection, every fpecies of knowledge from which no 
immediate danger could arife to the fyltem of hierarchi¬ 
cal power, and by that means to acquire the ellimation 
and celebrity of being the moSt able and moll learned 
men of the Christian world. Affilted by this fupremacy 
over opinion, it became eafy for them either to paralyze 
the branches of knowledge which might bear fruit dan¬ 
gerous to the papacy, or to bend, direCt, and graft, thefe 
branches at pleafure. Thus, in infpiring a talte for the 
liberal fciences, theGreekand Roman claffics, profane hif- 
tory, mathematics, &c. they could conveniently Stifle that 
of inquiring into matters of religion and taite, the philo¬ 
sophical and investigating Spirit. The philofophy taught 
in their Schools was. calculated to make this fcience re¬ 
pulsive and difgufting. It was no other than the fcholaf- 
tic, revifed and corrected by them, and applied to cir¬ 
cumstances; particularly to the polemical controverfy with 
the reformists, whofe arguments, as may readily be fup- 
pofed, were brought forward in them lb as to be destroy¬ 
ed by the artillery of the fchool. With refpeCt to reli¬ 
gion, the Study of it was confined to the books of the¬ 
ology compofed purpofely by members of the fociety, to 
Jefuit caSuifts and moralists. The Study of the original 
books of religion was withdrawn ; or, if the gofpels and 
other pieces appeared fometimes in their works of devo¬ 
tion, (and this was very neceffary, fince the translations, 
made by the reformed, were public,) it was with inter¬ 
pretations and even alterations conformable to the prin¬ 
cipal object of the Society. Their grand rallying word 
was the utility of the fciences, and the lujlre of the belles 
lettres. As to every thing relating to a moral ameliora¬ 
tion or to the ennobling of mankind, as well as every 
thing connected with the philosophical and theological 
fciences, the Jeluits Strove eagerly, and in fa£t fucceeded, 
in making them be totally forgotten ; in rendering theolo¬ 
gy and philofophy barbarous and full of difficulties, and 
even ridiculous, in the, eyes of the bulk of mankind. 
Who can determine how much this Jefuitic mode of in¬ 
struction, which became the reigning mode in the catho¬ 
lic countries, and which differs So widely from the mode 
of instruction of the proteftants ; how much, I fay, this 
procedure, obltinately followed during feveral fucceflive 
generations, 
