1600-1753.
AMERICAN MISSIONS.
When we reflect that the Jesuits are our fellow-men, that their crimes
and iniquities which we are compelled to stigmatise, are in some measure
a stain upon the human species, we sincerely rejoice when we find some
noble action to record, and when we may write a page of praise and
eulogium. We think we have shewn this impartiality in our account of
the Indian missions, when, while condemning with all our might the
idolatrous practice of later times, we awarded to the first missionaries
the praise that was due to their pure and generous intentions, and to
their prodigious and unremitting activity. We are placed in much the
same predicament in speaking of the American missions, when we find
the evil inherent in the spirit of the sect, and in the religion they
profess, united with noble and generous endeavours to make the happiness
of a barbarous and savage population, by reducing it under benignant
and humane laws, and by imparting to it the benefit of Christianity, at
least in its effects upon the external conduct and mode of living. No
doubt, a Christian Protestant—a man deeply imbued with the true spirit
of the gospel, and who abhors any form of worship which consists in mere
bodily service—will find much to blame in these missions. No doubt the
Jesuits here, as in India, preached and taught superstitious practices
and external observances, rather than the sincere devotion of the
heart, and the faith to be reposed on the merits of Christ’s blood. No
doubt they converted the spiritual and mystic religion of Christ into a
sensual worship of material symbols. But, to be just, we think that these
reproaches are due to Popery, to the Roman Catholic religion in general,
and not to the Jesuits alone, and that we ought not to withhold from them
the praise they deserve for any good quality or merits they possess,
merely because they are Papists. This would be too invidious, and would
render us guilty of capital injustice towards those Romanists or Jesuits
who sincerely believe that theirs is the only true religion; and be
assured that in all religions, there are some who think thus of their
own. On the other hand, the Jesuits are accused of having undertaken
these missions solely with a view to their private ends, to aggrandise
and enrich the order, and not to advance the interests of religion and
the glory of God. This we freely admit, and we have repeatedly said that
_the Order_ has always been the ultimate end of their conduct; but to
refuse them the merit of having brought a savage population into the pale
of civilisation, because they did so for their own private interest,
would be the same as to apply the epithet of rogue to a landlord or
manufacturer, who treats his dependants with unwonted kindness and
humanity, because, by treating them in this manner, he himself receives
immense advantage.
Our readers must not infer from what we have just said, that we do not
find anything with which to reproach the Jesuits in their American
missions. We shall have many things to censure in them, but, on the
whole, their proceedings appear to us to be deserving of the greatest
praise, and we feel obliged to defend them from the gross abuse which has
been indiscriminately poured upon them on this score.
The character of the Western and Eastern missions differ widely, both in
the means employed and the results obtained. In East India and China,
the principal feature of the missions is the idolatry with which the
Jesuits polluted the Christian religion. Having to deal with populations
in possession already of more or less civilisation, and deeply imbued
with the prejudices of their religion, the Jesuits thought of humouring
them in their belief, and sometimes shewed themselves more inclined to
idolatry than the pagans they were labouring to convert. Besides, having
on one side to contend with the pagan priests, who wanted themselves to
work the ignorance and prejudices of the Indians to their own account,
and being harassed on the other by the chief of their own religion, who
would not admit of any other idolatry than that which was approved by
himself, the Jesuits could not obtain in the East Indies any great and
permanent result.
Of a quite different character are the missions of America. The Jesuits
found there a barbarous and savage population, zealous of their
vagabond independence, fierce in their enmities, without any positive
notion of a peculiar religion, and, consequently, easy to be subjected
to any superior intelligence who should undertake to inculcate upon
them no matter what new creed. The chief difficulty there lay in the
impossibility of having any intercourse with the persons whose conversion
was desired. The Indians, simple and kind when first discovered, had
now become ferocious and excessively cunning, having been driven to
extremities by the cruel and merciless treatment they had experienced
from the rapacious Spaniards, a treatment which had inspired them with
mortal hatred against all Christians, and against the very name of
Christ, which had been sacrilegiously employed in the massacre of their
kinsmen. Yet it was among the same savages, who avoided Europeans more
than a ferocious beast, that the Jesuits, without arms or any compulsory
means, simply by persuasion and kindness, succeeded in erecting an
empire, all the laws of which were based upon the first principles of
Christianity. Let us see how they performed such real prodigies.
The Spanish adventurers had brought into conquered America all the vices
and the ferocious passions of their Inquisition. It might be said that
South America had been transformed into a large inquisitorial tribunal,
and that every soldier was an inquisitor and an executioner at the same
time. The adventurers, to palliate their crimes, when they murdered the
poor, inoffensive Indians, gave out that they did so to honour Christ,
whom these obdurate pagans refused to worship. It is not our intention
to detail all the crimes of those most Christian assassins, and we shall
be contented with saying, that while they butchered tens of thousands of
inoffensive people, in endeavouring to convert them to their religion,
they succeeded with but very few; and those who, to avoid tortures and
death, submitted to be _baptized_, hated still more than their pagan
brethren the very name of Christians.
Ranke gives a very prosperous picture of the state of religion in
America, and says, “In the beginning of the sixteenth century we find
the proud fabric of the Catholic Church completely erected in South
America. It possessed five archbishoprics, twenty-seven bishoprics, four
hundred monasteries, and _doctrines_ innumerable.”[289] Now, with all
deference to so great a historian, we venture to say, that we admit the
veracity of the statement as to the number of monks and monasteries,
archbishoprics and bishoprics; but we believe that these establishments
were in proportion to the extent of the country, not to the number of
Christian inhabitants. Indeed, in every tract of land of which the
Europeans had taken possession, there was erected a church, if not for
the accommodation of these same Europeans, at least to furnish priests
and monks with a pretext to claim a share in the spoils and wealth of the
country; but we doubt much that many Indians frequented these churches.
The swarms of monks who had flocked to America, finding in the climate
a still greater stimulus to their usual propensity to indolence and
luxury, indulged in all their vices, and thought only of making converts
as far as was necessary to procure some subjects who might enrich
their patrons, the soldiers, as well as their monasteries.[290] Such,
however, was not the conduct of the Jesuits. There, as in Europe, they
wished to be distinguished from other brotherhoods, and affected a more
saintly and pious course of life. Concealing their ultimate purposes
under the cloak of religion and piety, they spoke of nothing else but of
converting infidels, and opposed, in the name of Christ, the sanguinary
measures adopted by the conquerors, and approved by other religious
communities. Perhaps we are not far from the truth when we assert that
the Jesuits adopted a more humane and Christian policy, as well for
their private purpose, as to set themselves in opposition to other
religious communities. Because, it is a remarkable fact in the history
of the Church of Rome, that while every other brotherhood has both
friends and foes in the other bodies, the Jesuits alone have none but
enemies. However it was, they set themselves to work; and, overlooking
for a moment the greater or less holiness of the end they proposed, we
repeat, that the means they made use of to acquire a standing among the
savages of South America are deserving of the highest encomium. The
conquerors of this unfortunate part of the globe, as Robertson remarks,
had no other object in view than to rob, to enslave, to exterminate,
while the Jesuits established themselves there in the view of humanity.
They overran the country to a great extent, and wherever they could find
an Indian, they overwhelmed him with so much kindness, shewed him so
much affection, spoke so indignantly of the cruelty and avarice of the
ferocious conquerors, with so much unction of the mercies of God, that
these injured men yielded by degrees to the fascination, and accustomed
themselves to look upon a Jesuit as a protector from the oppressions of
the other Europeans. And protectors they were, and proved to be. Father
Valdiva went purposely to Madrid to obtain from Philip III. orders
enjoining officers to treat the poor Indians with a little more humanity,
and brought back a decree, that those Indians who had settled within
certain precincts ruled by the Jesuits, should neither be reduced to
servitude, nor be _forced_ to embrace the Christian religion.[291] In
the Tucuman, in Paraguay, in Chili, the Jesuits in their wanderings were
making many and devout proselytes, but with no other material advantage
to the order except the envy of the other brotherhoods, and the hatred
of the Spaniards, whose interests they were damaging. The sagacious and
politic Acquaviva perceived at once that this state of things must be
mended; and, in consequence, he sent to America, in 1602, a commissioner,
who, re-uniting in Salta all the Jesuits dispersed in different
countries, apprised them that the General thought it expedient to trace
a plan to moderate the eccentricities (_écarts_) of zeal, and to direct
its impetuosity;[292] in other words, to turn such zeal to account. In
consequence, it was determined to concentrate all, or at least their
greatest efforts, upon a point, and fix there the seat of their power in
the New World. After having provided that a sufficient number of the
order should remain at the stations throughout all South America, to
keep up their schools and colleges, and their commercial establishments,
Acquaviva wished that his disciples should employ all their energies in
creating a new kingdom which they could call their own.
Paraguay, an immense and most fertile region, was chosen for a site on
which to erect this principality, far from any rivalry, and with the
view that the subject should know no other master, no other religion, no
other God, than those presented to them by the fathers. The undertaking
was difficult, and required a great deal of courage, patience, and
intrepidity; but the Jesuits proved equal to the task. By degrees, they
succeeded in bringing some tribes to listen to them. The Guaranis were
the first who had friendly intercourse with the Jesuits, and who were
persuaded by them to renounce their wandering and adventurous life,
and to taste the sweets of a well-regulated society. Some houses were
built under the direction of the fathers. The lay brothers, or temporal
coadjutors, were the artisans who supplied them with what was most
essential to render life pleasant and comfortable. Above all, the power
of music was brought to bear on the vivid mind of those savages, who were
charmed by the melody of the sacred songs repeated by the fathers.
The knowledge the Jesuits had of the art of healing wounds and bodily
diseases, contributed also in great measure to procure them friends and
admirers. Curiosity further favoured their efforts, while it brought the
Indians to view what appeared to them such strange things in the Jesuit
settlements, after they were sure that they should meet with nothing but
kindness and presents. Where at first stood a few isolated houses, soon
sprung up a village, which subsequently became a neat and regular little
town. The plan traced for these towns was uniform, and very simple. The
streets, of one breadth, extended in straight lines, and met in a central
square. The church was built in the most conspicuous situation of the
village, and was by far the most handsome and decorated building in the
town. Near the church were the house of the fathers, the arsenal, and the
storehouses. In every village there was also a workhouse, or a sort of
penitentiary for bad women.
These villages were known under the general appellation of _Reductions_,
but each of them was distinguished by a proper name. The first which
was established was dedicated to the Madonna of Loretto; the second, to
St Ignatius; and others to other saints and Madonnas. As early as the
year 1632, the Jesuits possessed twenty Reductions, each containing a
thousand families. Two Jesuits, the curate and the vicar, were appointed
to the management of each Reduction, which they governed with absolute
and unquestioned authority. They were the sovereigns, the friends, the
physicians, the gods, of those barbarians who consented to live in the
Reductions. They partook of their labours, of their amusements, of
their joys, of their sorrows. They visited daily every house in which
lay a sick person, whom they served as the kindest nurse, and to whom
they seemed to be ministering genii. By such conduct they brought this
primitive population to idolise them.
It must not be supposed, however, that the Jesuits obtained at once over
the ferocious adult Indians a general and absolute power. Even those
who had consented to receive baptism, and to live for some time in the
Reduction, often deserted it, and disdaining to live that peaceful and
comparatively effeminate life, returned to their forests, and to their
former life of constant warfare, in search of their enemies, in order
to gratify their cannibal appetites. Often they rebelled against the
Jesuits’ authority, and not seldom menaced them with utter destruction.
But the second generation—those children who were born within the
Reduction, and had been brought up by the fathers—shewed themselves the
most submissive and devoted of all subjects. Gratitude for the kindness
they had experienced, admiration for the superior intelligence and
acquirements of their masters, awe for the religion they were taught,
fear of punishment and disgrace—all combined to render them faithful and
submissive to the fathers.
When once the Jesuits had raised up a generation so devoted and obedient,
they then brought into operation their system of government, and made
a successful attempt to realise that republic preconceived of old by
Plato, and which, with perhaps more interested views, is held out to us
by the Socialists of our own day. In fact, their form of a republic was
nothing else than that Communism which the famous Cabet is now trying to
establish in nearly the same regions; the only difference being, that the
Jesuits substituted themselves for the state or community.
The most perfect equality reigned in the Reductions. No mark of
distinction, no difference of dress, of house accommodation, or of food,
rendered one envious of the lot of another. In every Reduction there
were workshops in which were exercised the most useful arts. The moment
the boys were able to work, they were sent there to learn the trade to
which they felt most strongly inclined, according to a principle to which
the Jesuits invariably adhered—“that the art must be guided by nature.”
The Jesuit lay brothers, or temporal coadjutors, were the artisans who
instructed the youth, and they and the professed members themselves put
their hand to the plough, to encourage the Indians in conquering their
repugnance to labour the soil. Every family was assigned a portion of
ground, which they were obliged to cultivate; and a severe vigilance
insured a good cultivation. The women had also their occupations. Every
Monday morning they received a certain quantity of wool or cotton, and
every Saturday they were required to bring it back ready for the loom.
All the produce, of whatever sort, was deposited in large storehouses,
and distributed, by the Jesuits, in equal portions to every individual.
Even meat was portioned from the public slaughter-houses in the same
manner. In the distribution, the greatest attention was paid to the
orphan, the helpless, and the superannuated. The surplus of the produce
was exported, and partly exchanged for European wares which were wanted
in the Reduction; and the remainder, after having paid a piastra (four
shillings) for each individual from eighteen to fifty years of age, as
a sort of tribute to the King of Spain, remained at the disposal of
the fathers. No coin of whatever sort was permitted or known at the
Reduction. A spot of ground attached to every house may be said to
have constituted the only property belonging to the individual; and
this was done to encourage and recompense industry: for, if he made it
productive, he reaped all the profits himself, without diminishing the
portion he received from the common store. The daily occupations were
minutely regulated. There were fixed hours for work, for amusement, for
prayers, and an hour was even fixed in the evening after which every
person was obliged to return within the wall of his own habitation. Any
transgression of any of the established rules met with public corporal
punishment; but, in general, the transgressor feared more the anger of
the father, than the castigation that awaited him. General suffrage
was exercised in its fullest extent; and it was the people who elected
their magistrates, and their civil and military officers. All these
public functionaries were invariably chosen from the Indians; but, to
flatter the pride, or lull the jealousy, of the Spanish king, they were
distinguished by the Spanish appellations, Corregidor, Alcalde, &c.
The choice of the people was submitted, _pro forma_ at least, to the
approval of the Spanish authorities, who, not knowing either electors or
candidates, could not but approve of it; but, in reality, the sanction of
the Jesuits was indispensable to the validity of the election.
To keep these people in such a state of dependence and submission, the
Jesuits had secluded them from the rest of the world. No individual could
leave the Reduction without permission, and no European was allowed to
visit these Reductions unaccompanied, or to have free intercourse with
the inhabitants. The knowledge of any other than the native language was
altogether banished, and aversion and prejudices against the Europeans as
carefully cherished as in ancient Egypt.
Nor were the Reductions left unprotected against the possible attacks of
foreign enemies. All able-bodied men were drilled to arms, and formed
into a militia, having its regulations, its officers, its arsenal, its
artillery, its ammunition. The officers were chosen by the soldiers; the
arms and ammunition, not excepting the cannon, were manufactured in the
Reduction, always by, and under the direction of, the Jesuits. On the
afternoon of every Sunday, and other holidays, the militia assembled and
executed military exercises and evolutions. When that militia was called
forth for the service of the Spanish king, “they had always at their head
and among their ranks, Jesuits, who prevented all contact with other
Indians or with Europeans, and who answered for their virtue before God,
as the Indians answered for their courage before men.”[293] Nor, indeed,
did they fail in their duty when an occasion presented itself. Tribes
of savages often attacked the Reductions, but were met with undoubted
courage, and, generally speaking, were repulsed after sustaining severe
loss.
But if, on the one hand, the Jesuits cherished among the people distrust
and aversion towards strangers, they, on the other hand, diligently
inculcated the exercise of hospitality and friendship among the different
Reductions. On the great festival days, and especially on the day of the
patron saint of any Reduction, the neighbouring ones went thither in
solemn procession, and were received with all possible marks of love and
friendship.
Such is a sketch of the civil government of the Reductions, and of the
kind of life led by the inhabitants. Objections and reproaches, and
perhaps not always unfounded, have been raised against such a system. It
has been said that the inhabitants of the Reductions were low and abject
slaves, led on by the scourge, deprived even of the faculty of thinking,
and confined in a perpetual imprisonment, though within a large space.
Quinet, with perhaps more eloquence than reason, exclaims, “Are we sure
that it (Paraguay) contains the germ of a great empire? Where is the
sign of life? Everywhere else, indeed, one hears at least the squalling
of the child in the cradle; here, I greatly fear, I confess, that so
much silence prevailing in the same place for three ages, is but a bad
sign, and that the regime which can so quietly enervate virgin nature,
cannot be any other than that which develops Guatmozen and Montezuma.”
All this is very well said, and may be in part true. Doubtless, these
people were kept in perpetual infancy. Doubtless, nothing great, nothing
of a creating stamp, must be expected from them. Doubtless, they did
not develop and expand the new element of life imparted to them, as
other nations have done who were more left to themselves; nor did they
exercise the noblest part of their nature—the intelligence—in that
pursuit for which we think man was created—the search after truth. But
surely there are nations who have been placed in worse circumstances,
and subjected to more disastrous influences, and more deserving our
pity and commiseration. Thus, if a nation, that has, through the free
exercise of all its faculties and activities, arrived at a high state
of civilisation and refinement, should be at once crushed, as France is
at the present moment, under the iron hand of despotism, that people
would be really miserable, and such doleful lamentations as those of the
eloquent ex-professor of the College of France would not in this case
be misplaced. But these Americans, who knew nothing of the pleasures of
moral and intellectual refinement but what was presented to them by their
instructors, and found therein contentment, we do not know how far they
deserve to be pitied. Were these people, we ask in our turn, less happy
or more miserable than those tens of thousands who wallow in vices of all
sorts in the free and civilised towns of Paris and London? Are, then,
squalid poverty, the groans of the oppressed, and reckless sensuality,
necessary elements of national happiness? These are questions which in
our opinion deserve some consideration; and although we think the human
race has been destined by the Creator to greater and nobler purposes
than the mere enjoyment of a material life; and although we know that
humanity must progress in its career, and that this progress cannot be
attained without great commotion and great evil, nevertheless, when we
contemplate all the miseries which surround our state of civilisation,
we freely forgive the Jesuits for having, in one part of the globe, let
civilisation and progress sleep a while, to render these poor Indians
happy.
Better founded are the charges brought by the pious and zealous against
the Jesuits, with respect to the kind of religion they taught to their
neophytes. In fact, though we cannot trace any such permanent system
of gross idolatry as was practised by the order in the East Indies,
nevertheless it is an undeniable fact, that what was taught by them
under the name of the pure religion of Christ, was little else than
a series of empty forms and superstitious observances, and that the
worship which was rendered to God was little better than a continual and
motley masquerade, if we may be allowed the expression. We shall not
enter into details, the following passage from Crétineau sufficiently
shewing what sort of Christians, if they can be called so at all, were
those converted by the Jesuits. “Those Indians had a very limited
intelligence; they only understood what fell under their senses; and
the missionaries were so alarmed at their stupidity, that they asked
themselves whether it was possible to admit them to the participation
of the sacraments. They consulted, upon this point, the bishops of Peru
assembled at Lima, who came to the decision _that, baptism excepted, no
act of Christian devotion should be imposed upon them, without infinite
precautions_.”[294] It is true that the panegyrist of the order adds,
that the patience of the Jesuits was not discouraged for all this, and
that they endeavoured to render them better Christians, and, we even
believe, if the man who fulfilled all the imposed external ceremonies may
be called a Christian, that they succeeded in their attempt.
However, it seems that the Jesuits had so completely perverted the true
spirit of the Christian religion, that even Roman Catholic bishops,
who, as every one knows, are not very scrupulous in these matters, were
shocked and indignant at their conduct, and made an attempt to put a
stop to it. Bernardin of Cardenas, Bishop of Paraguay, and John Palafox,
Bishop of Angelopolis, were the most prominent in their efforts to put a
stop to the Jesuitical superstitions; but both were unsuccessful; both
were worsted in the contest; both were obliged to wander as poor exiles
out of their dioceses; and both were at last compelled to give up their
bishoprics. The history of Palafox in particular deserves to be briefly
told.
Palafox was a man of the greatest piety, of a pure and uncontaminated
life, and, after his death, was even proposed for canonisation. He bore
no ill-will to the Jesuits; on the contrary, as a good Papist which
he was, he even overrated their merits. In his letter to the King of
Spain, he says of them, “The Company of the holy name of Jesus is an
admirable institution, learned, useful, sainted, worthy not only of the
protection of your majesty, but of all the Catholic prelates.”[295] A
man who thus speaks of the order cannot be suspected of enmity; and it
must be inferred that he would not have attacked the Society, unless
constrained by duty or necessity. He attempted at first to bring them to
reason by remonstrance.[296] He afterwards wrote a strong letter to Pope
Innocent X., and asked for a reform of the Society, indispensable, he
said, for the good of the Christian community. The result was, that the
Jesuits raised such a storm, and excited so many bad passions against
the virtuous prelate, that he, “not to be imprisoned or murdered, was
obliged to fly, and to wander,” as he wrote to the Pope, “through
inhospitable mountains and forests; to appease his hunger with the bread
of affliction; to quench his thirst with the water of his eyes; to have
no other house than caverns and the hard ground; and to pass his life
with serpents and scorpions.”[297] Such was the life to which the Jesuits
had reduced the poor bishop. But even this did not satisfy them. To
satiate their spirit of revenge, they did not scruple to profane the
episcopal dignity, and the most sacred mysteries of that religion which
they professed to uphold. In 1647, on the day of the festival of their
founder Loyola, the pupils of the college got up a procession, of which
the following were the principal features. One of the scholars had the
crozier hanging from the tail of his horse, and the mitre at the stirrup.
Another carried an image of the bishop in caricature; others carried
indecent images of highly respectable priests. This one gave a blessing
with the horns of a bullock, saying, “Such are the true armorial of the
Christians.” That others _held up with one hand the image of the Saviour,
and with the other an infamous thing which decency forbids us to name_.
All of them shouted out the Lord’s Prayer, at the end of which they
repeated with thundering shouts, “Libera nos a Palafox—Deliver us from
Palafox.”[298]
At last, the Court of Rome, in order to protect him, transferred him
to the see of Osma in Spain, where he gave such proofs of virtue and
piety, that he died in the odour of sanctity, received subsequently the
title of _Servus Dei_ and _Venerabilis_, and, about sixty years after,
was proposed for canonization.[299] But can it be believed—would any
one imagine—that Jesuits of the third generation would step forward
to renew their attack against the ancient opponent of the order, and
oppose his canonisation? And yet such was the case. The General of
the Company actually interfered, and by the mouth of the promoter of
the faith—_promotore della fede_,[300] calumniated his doctrines, his
conduct, his life; and succeeded in postponing the canonisation till the
storm which was gathering broke forth, and dispersed for a while the
hated Company of Jesus.[301] This example goes far to shew how deeply is
rooted in the heart of the Jesuit the spirit of hatred and revenge!
We have reported at some length the incidents connected with Palafox,
as peculiarly exemplifying both the character of that individual, and
the nature of the facts and the scandal they produced among the Papists
themselves, and which is not yet alleged. But this is merely one
example, amongst thousands, of the domineering and persecuting spirit
of Jesuitism. “The innumerable and continual proceedings that were
brought against you at the Court of Rome,” says Gioberti, addressing
the order, “bear witness of the kind of concord and good friendship
which the Company maintained with their companions in the priesthood
and apostolate. The first cause of the quarrel has always been, that
your missionaries wanted to be alone, and to exclude the other orders
from any participation in the missions; and for this they first of all
applied to the Holy See; and when they did not succeed there, they had
recourse to all sorts of tricks, insidious calumnies, persecutions, and
acts of violence.”[302] So speaks a man who glories in being a truly
good Roman Catholic, and who enumerates many bishops, vicar-generals,
popes, legates, &c., who had been sorely persecuted by the fathers. In
fact, here is the policy adopted by the Jesuits towards the superior
ecclesiastical authorities everywhere, and more especially in the East
and West Indies. We beg the especial attention of our readers to the
following statement, because it serves to explain the apparent anomaly
existing among Popish bishops and other functionaries, in respect to the
favour or hatred shewn by them to the Jesuits.
The bishop, or legate, or cardinal, or whoever possesses any authority,
must be either friendly or adverse to the Company, and this especially
in foreign and distant lands far from the control of Rome. In the former
case, the Jesuits will load him with praises, whether deserved or not.
They will pronounce him a saint, a luminary of the Church, a model of
Christian virtue; and leaving to him all the external pomp and ostensible
authority of his office, they will command and direct everything in his
name. To such men they give the utmost outward respect, and make the most
humble protestations of devotion, repeating at every word that they are
the most obedient servants of the Holy See, and of its representative.
And this same conduct of theirs, and the testimony which those same
persons are ready to give to their dutiful behaviour, is held out by the
fathers as an answer to those who reproach them with disobedience and
irreligion. But if these ecclesiastical dignitaries refuse to submit to
the guidance of the fathers, and pretend to exercise their own authority
independently, they become profligate heretics, monsters of iniquity;
and they may consider themselves fortunate if they escape with treatment
short of that bestowed upon Palafox and De Tournon. Indeed, even the very
Popes have been treated in nearly the same manner, and have been extolled
or slandered, according as they were favourable or adverse to the
Society. There are to be found in the _Bullarium_ a quantity of briefs
against the Jesuits for their disobedience to the representatives of the
Holy See, and for the persecutions these had suffered from them.[303]
Their disobedience, and spirit of revolt against the Court of Rome,
with respect to their conduct in the missions, in which they persisted,
had become so offensive and provoking, that first Innocent X., and then
Innocent XIII., had resolved to abolish the Society, not by a bold and
decisive measure, as did afterwards Clement XIV., but by forbidding the
reception of any more novices. Innocent XIII., after having ordered the
Inquisition to collect full evidence of the almost traitorous actions
of the Jesuits, in answer to an apologetic letter of the General,
who declared the Society to be innocent, or, at least, excused their
insubordination and rebellion, issued a bull by which it was expressly
forbidden to the General, and the Society, to give the habit to any
novice, or to admit any to take vows, whether simple or solemn.[304] But
while Innocent was determining to act with extreme vigour against the
Society, he died, and by a death which awakened no unnatural suspicion of
foul play.[305]
Such are the broad features of the American missions. We may as well
add, that the Jesuits thought it prudent to refuse admittance into the
Company to all the aborigines, in order that they might not lose the
prestige which they exercised over them. We must also warn our readers
not to imagine that the Jesuits had confined their establishment to the
Reductions of Paraguay. Paraguay was their own private kingdom, we may
say, but they had also magnificent establishments of all kinds throughout
all South America. Particular incidents, minute details, miracles,
wonders, as related by the Jesuits in their histories, and in their
letters, _annuæl_ or _edifiantes_, we shall not repeat; nor shall we
record some partial acts of cruelty and wickedness with which some of the
Jesuits have been reproached. We think we have given as fair an idea as
possible of the general character of the missions, and this is all that
can be done in a general history of the order. As we shall afterwards
have occasion to speak at some length of the commercial operations of the
Jesuits, and of the ultimate fate of the Reductions, we shall now bring
this chapter to an end.