1814.
RE-ESTABLISHMENT.
The events which took place in Europe in 1814 are known to every one.
Napoleon, who represented abroad that same French Revolution which
his military despotism had smothered at home, fell under the united
efforts of Europe, favoured by the elements and by the treachery of his
former companions in arms, to whom he had given either the staff of the
field-marshal or the sceptre of the king. The restoration of all the
dethroned sovereigns followed, and on re-entering their dominions, these
monarchs directed all their cares to obliterate even the remembrance
(foolish and useless attempt!) of all that had been done, said, and
published, in the past time of hurricane and revolution, and hurried
back with inconsiderate earnestness to their old and primitive system
of governing. The Jesuits, skilful in profiting by every circumstance,
then stepped forward, and offered to those sovereigns their unconditional
services. Already, after their suppression, and during the ascendant
march of the French Revolution, they, with infinite address, had
persuaded the different sovereigns, either menaced on their thrones or
already hurled from them, that their overthrow—the crimes which, it is
unfortunately true, in a moment of delirium, had been committed in the
name of liberty—the impious and subversive doctrines which had invaded
Europe, and extinguished every sense of morality and religion—all were
to be attributed to the suppression of the order. They asserted that
the Encyclopædists, after the destruction of the Society, the surest
bulwark of the throne and the altar, finding no more opposition, and
passing from theory to practice, had caused the revolution, and set
the whole of Europe in a blazing conflagration; and this is even now
repeated by the fathers and their partisans. We must, before proceeding
any farther, give the answer Gioberti makes to their assertions. He
grants that the Encyclopædists did make the revolution. “But,” says he,
“the Society, by altering and disfiguring, in the opinion of many, the
Catholic faith, the morality of the gospel, the authority of princes,
and all those fundamental laws which form the basis of all states and
governments—in fact, by substituting for religion their own sect—had
shaken all principles of morality, religion, and good government, and had
indeed brought the Encyclopædists into existence; the most conspicuous of
whom, in fact, as Voltaire, Diderot, Helvetius, Marmontel, St Lambert,
Lametrie, and many others, had issued from Jesuitical colleges, or had
had Jesuits as their tutors.”[424]
However, these monks, who, as we have seen, had conspired against the
life and independence of almost all the sovereigns of Europe, now had the
art to persuade the reigning monarchs that they would be always insecure
on their thrones without the assistance and the support of the Company;
and, strange to say, some actually believed them, while others feigned
to do so. From that moment to our days, in the eyes of such bigoted
and short-sighted despots as the Ferdinands of Naples, the Leopolds
of Tuscany, the Francis Josephs of Austria, and all the supporters of
absolutism, the Jesuits have been considered as the best pillars and
supporters of despotism and tyranny. Nor is this belief destitute of
foundation so far as the intentions of the fathers are concerned. The
Liberals in our time are in their eyes what the Reformers were two
centuries back. Against them are now directed all their efforts; the
Liberals are now the accursed of God, the impious whom all the courage
and ability of the sons of Ignatius can hardly keep at bay. Nor is this
the first time that these mendacious and impudent monks have contrived to
impose themselves on different states, representing their interference
as indispensable to the welfare of society and to the repression of its
enemies. Thus they had imposed themselves as necessary to combat the
Reformers in the sixteenth century, the Jansenists and Calvinists in
the seventeenth, and again, in the eighteenth, the philosophers and the
approaching revolution; although it was not till very late, and when
the first persecutions had awakened them from their state of beatitude,
that they proclaimed themselves the opponents of the Encyclopædists.
In the nineteenth century, the adversaries with whom they are wont to
contend are, as we said, the Liberals; and the fathers must, indeed, be
skilful and powerful instruments for suppressing all ideas of liberty,
all free aspiration, all generous sentiments, all personal dignity, and
for keeping the people in servitude, since the supremely cunning Louis
Napoleon has chosen them as his most useful auxiliaries, and lavished on
them all sorts of favours.
Among the sovereigns who, in 1814, re-ascended the thrones from which a
daring and unscrupulous conqueror had hurled them, was the old Pontiff,
who, after his captivity at Fontainebleau, had, on the 24th of May,
re-entered Rome amidst unfeigned marks of love and veneration from
his people. Indeed, the man who at this epoch occupied the pontifical
chair was, for many reasons, worthy of the greatest admiration and
respect. This person was Barnaba Chiaramonti, a Benedictine monk, who
assumed the name of Pius VII. His life was pure and uncontaminated;
his intentions were good; his character was mild and benevolent; and
before his misfortunes, he had shewn some readiness to make concessions
required by the times and the circumstances; but after his captivity,
after the series of direct miseries which had befallen him and the Sacred
College, miseries which he attributed to the spirit of irreligion then
prevalent in Europe, Pius VII., now a feeble old man, gave way to all the
propensities of a fanatical, bigoted monk, which in his better days he
had subdued and restrained by reasoning. His first care, therefore, was
to re-establish all the monastic orders he could, and among the first
was that of the Jesuits, who had already flocked to Rome from every
part, with the certainty of soon re-acquiring their former position and
splendour. Nor were they disappointed in their expectations. On Sunday,
the 7th of August 1814, Pius VII. went in state to the church of the
Gesù, celebrated himself the mass before the altar consecrated to Loyola;
heard a second mass, immediately after which he caused to be read and
promulgated the bull by which the Society of Jesus was re-established
according to the ancient rules.
Party writers, too eager to find Popes in contradiction with each
other, and to hold up their pretended infallibility to the ridicule
of their readers, have taken up these two acts, and asked, “Who was
infallible—Clement XIV., who abolished the Society, or Pius VII., who
re-established it?” We do not aspire to so easy a triumph, and we shall
consider Chiaramonti’s bull in a somewhat more serious manner.
In our opinion, the bull of Pius VII. is less in contradiction than
may be supposed with the brief of Clement. Pius does not in the least
condemn either the brief or its author; nor does he say that it had been
extorted, as Ganganelli said of the bull of Rezzonico. On the contrary,
he speaks of it as of a legal and perfectly authoritative act by which
the Company had ceased to exist; and when he is obliged in some sort to
annul it, he does not annul it, except in that part which is contrary to
his own bull, namely, that which affects the existence of the Society.
In the whole bull there is not a word, not a syllable, to contradict or
to weaken the long list of terrible accusations brought against them
by Clement. If it was an injustice done to the Jesuits, which Pius
wished to repair, he ought at least to have mentioned that they had been
wronged, and that it was the duty of the Supreme Chief of the Church to
reinstate them in the good estimation of Europe. But the bull is silent
as to any such wrongs, and is very chary of its commendations of the
sons of Ignatius. Why, then, one may ask, did Pius VII. re-establish
the Company of Jesus? First, as I have stated, because he was a bigoted
monk, and thought that it might be in the power of the fanatical and
idle brotherhoods of all kinds to extinguish the light spread by the new
doctrines, and to bring humanity back to the blessed darkness of the
middle ages. In other words, he thought, and many of the sovereigns,
some of them not Roman Catholics, thought with him, that the priests and
monks would be able to arrest the progress of civilisation; for it must
be remembered that the horrors and acts of barbarity which were committed
during the last ten years of the eighteenth century, and which were the
consequences of a forced and exaggerated application of the new theories
on government and religion, could in no way be laid to the charge of
the doctrines themselves, which are calculated to promote the real and
beneficent progress of society. Besides Chiaramonti’s predilection for
all monks, to whose re-establishment, as he says in the bull, “_all his
care and all his solicitude are given_,” Pius was requested by all
the sovereigns to re-establish the Company; and he says that he should
consider himself as wanting in his duty if, while the bark of Peter was
tossed to and fro amidst dangerous rocks, he should disdain the help of
those _vigorous and experienced rowers_.
Such were the motives, of a purely political nature on the part of
the sovereigns, and of a mixed nature on the part of the Pope, which
induced the former to request, and the latter to grant, a new existence
to the Society of Jesus. But observe, that in the act itself, by which
he re-instated the order, Pius reserved to the Holy See the power of
modifying it if its provisions were abused. He subjects the members of
the Company, in the exercise of all their spiritual functions, to the
jurisdiction of the ordinaries, thus despoiling it of the most precious
of its privileges, the whole of which he expressly recalls. And the
bull is still more significant, when it conjures all the members of the
Society to return to the primitive rules of Ignatius, and to take him
as their model. The Pontiff does not say, return to your occupation, to
those exercises in which you were engaged before the Suppression. But he
tells them to return to the primitive spirit of their institution, from
which they had so far departed. The noble and virtuous Pontiff hoped
that their past misfortunes would have instructed those inconsiderate
and wicked monks, and warned them not to incur again the hatred of
Christendom. Vain hopes! useless admonitions! Before fifteen years shall
pass, the whole of Europe, except, perhaps, some despots and their
supporters, will look anxiously for the happy day when the troublesome
progeny of Ignatius shall be irrevocably banished from its bosom!
However, as the bull is very short, we shall submit it to the calm and
serious consideration of our readers, and we feel confident that they
will form the same opinion of it that we have done, namely, that in the
act itself, in which Pius re-establishes the Jesuits, he modifies their
institutions and condemns their past conduct.
“_Bull for the Re-establishment of the Order of the
Jesuits._[425]
“PIUS, Bishop, Servant of the servants of God (ad perpetuam rei
memoriam).
“The care of all the Churches confided to our humility by the
Divine will, notwithstanding the lowness of our deserts and
abilities, makes it our duty to employ all the aids in our
power, and which are furnished to us by the mercy of Divine
Providence, in order that we may be able, as far as the changes
of times and places will allow, to relieve the spiritual wants
of the _Catholic world_, without any distinction of _people and
nations_.
“Wishing to fulfil this duty of our apostolic ministry, as
soon as Francis Karew (then living) and other secular priests,
resident for many years in the vast empire of Russia, and
who had been members of the Company of Jesus, suppressed by
Clement XIV., of happy memory, had supplicated our permission
to unite in a body, for the purpose of being able to apply
themselves more easily, in conformity with their institutions,
to the instruction of youth in religion and good morals, to
devote themselves to preaching, to confession, and to the
administration of the other sacraments, we felt it our duty the
more willingly to comply with their prayer, inasmuch as the
reigning emperor, Paul I., had recommended the said priests, in
his gracious despatch, dated 11th August 1800, in which, after
setting forth his special regard for them, he declared to us
that it would be agreeable to him to see the Company of Jesus
established in his empire under our authority; and we, on our
side, considering attentively the great advantage which these
vast regions might thence derive, considering how useful those
ecclesiastics, whose morals and learning were equally tried,
would be to the Catholic religion, thought fit to second the
wish of so great and beneficent a prince.
“In consequence, by our brief, dated 7th March 1801, we granted
to the said Francis Karew, and his colleagues, residing in
Russia, or who should repair thither from other countries,
power to form themselves into a body or congregation of the
Company of Jesus; they are at liberty to unite in one or
more houses, to be pointed out by their superior, provided
these houses are situated within the Russian empire. We named
the said Francis Karew General of the said congregation; we
authorised them to resume and follow the rule of St Ignatius
of Loyola, approved and confirmed by the Constitutions of
Paul III., our predecessor, of happy memory, in order that
the companions, in a religious union, might freely engage in
the instruction of youth in religion and good letters, direct
seminaries and colleges, and, with the consent of the ordinary,
confess, preach the Word of God, and administer the sacraments.
By the same brief, we received the congregation of the Company
of Jesus under our immediate protection and dependence,
reserving to ourselves and our successors the prescription of
everything that might appear to us proper to consolidate, to
defend it, and to purge it from the abuses and corruptions
that might be therein introduced; and for this purpose we
expressly abrogated such apostolical constitutions, statutes,
privileges, and indulgences, granted in contradiction to these
concessions, especially the apostolic letters of Clement
XIV., our predecessor, which begun with the words _Dominus ac
Redemptor Nostra_, only in so far as they are contrary to our
brief, beginning _Catholicæ_, and which was given only for the
Russian empire.
“A short time after we had ordained the restoration of the
order of Jesuits in Russia, we thought it our duty to grant the
same favour to the kingdom of Sicily, on the warm request of
our dear son in Jesus Christ, King Ferdinand, who begged that
the Company of Jesus might be re-established in his kingdom and
states as it was in Russia, from a conviction that, in these
deplorable times, the Jesuits were instructors most capable of
forming youth to Christian piety and the fear of God, which is
the beginning of wisdom, and to instruct them in science and
letters. The duty of our pastoral charge leading us to second
the pious wishes of these illustrious monarchs, and having
only in view the glory of God and the salvation of souls, we,
by our brief, beginning _Per alias_, and dated the 30th July
1804, extended to the kingdom of the two Sicilies the same
concessions we had made for the Russian empire.
“The _Catholic world_ demands with _unanimous_ voice the
re-establishment of the Company of Jesus. We daily receive to
this effect the most pressing petitions from our venerable
brethren, the archbishops and bishops, and the most
distinguished persons, especially since the abundant fruits
which this Company has produced in the above countries have
been generally known. The dispersion even of the stones of the
sanctuary in these recent calamities (which it is better now to
deplore than to repeat), the annihilation of the discipline of
the regular orders (the glory and support of religion and the
Catholic Church, to the restoration of which all our thoughts
and cares are at present directed), require that we should
accede to a wish so just and general.
“We should deem ourselves guilty of a great crime towards
God, if, amidst these dangers of the Christian republic, we
neglected the aids which the special providence of God has put
at our disposal, _and if, placed in the bark of Peter, tossed
and assailed by continual storms, we refused to employ_ THE
VIGOROUS AND EXPERIENCED POWERS _who Volunteer their services,
in order to break the waves of a sea which threaten every
moment shipwreck and death_. Decided by motives so numerous
and powerful, we have resolved to do now what we could have
wished to have done at the commencement of our pontificate.
After having by fervent prayers implored the Divine assistance,
after having taken the advice and counsel of a great number
of our venerable brothers, the cardinals of the Holy Roman
Church, we have decreed, with full knowledge, in virtue of the
plenitude of apostolic power, and with perpetual validity,
that all the concessions and powers granted by us solely to
the Russian empire and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, shall
henceforth extend to all our ecclesiastical states, _and also
to all other states_. We therefore concede and grant to our
well-beloved son, Tadder Barzozowski, at this time General of
the Company of Jesus, and to the other members of that Company
lawfully delegated by him, all suitable and necessary powers
in order that the said states may freely and lawfully receive
all those who shall wish to be admitted into the regular
order of the Company of Jesus, who, under the authority of
the General, _ad interim_, shall be admitted and distributed,
according to opportunity, in one or more houses, one or more
colleges, and one or more provinces, where they shall conform
their mode of life to the rules prescribed by St Ignatius of
Loyola, approved and confirmed by the Constitutions of Paul
III. We declare, besides, and grant power, that they may freely
and lawfully apply to the education of youth in the principles
of the Catholic faith, to form them to good morals, and to
direct colleges and seminaries; we authorise them to hear
confessions, to preach the Word of God, and to administer the
sacraments in the places of their residence, with the consent
and approbation of the ordinary. We take under our tutelage,
under our immediate obedience, and that of the Holy See, all
the colleges, houses, provinces, and members of this order, and
all those who shall join it; always reserving to ourselves and
the Roman Pontiffs, our successors, to prescribe and direct
all that we may deem it our duty to prescribe and direct,
to consolidate the said Company more and more, to render it
stronger, and to purge it of abuses, should they ever creep in,
which God avert. It now remains for us to exhort, with all our
heart, and in the name of the Lord, all superiors, provincials,
rectors, companies, and pupils of this re-established Society,
to shew themselves at all times, and in all places, faithful
imitators of their father; that they exactly observe the rule
prescribed by their founder; that they obey with an always
increasing zeal the useful advices and salutary counsels which
he has left to his children.
“In fine, we recommend strongly in the Lord, the Company
and all its members to our dear sons in Jesus Christ, the
illustrious and noble princes and lords temporal, as well as
to our venerable brothers the archbishops and bishops, and to
all those who are placed in authority; we exhort, we conjure
them, not only not to suffer that these religions be in any
way molested, but to watch that they be treated with all due
kindness and charity.
“We ordain, that the present letters be inviolably observed
according to their form and tenor, in all time coming; that
they enjoy their full and entire effect; that they shall never
be submitted to the judgment or revision of any judge, with
whatever power he may be clothed; declaring null and of no
effect any encroachment on the present regulations, either
knowingly or from ignorance; and this notwithstanding any
apostolical constitutions and ordinances, especially the brief
of Clement XIV. of happy memory, beginning with the words
_Dominus ac Redemptor Noster_, issued under the seal of the
fisherman, on the 22d day of July 1773, which we expressly
abrogate as far as contrary to the present order.
“It is also our will that the same credit be paid to copies,
whether in manuscript or printed, of our present brief, as to
the original itself, provided they have the signature of some
notary public, and the seal of some ecclesiastical dignitary;
that no one be permitted to infringe, _or by an audacious
temerity to oppose, any part of this ordinance_; and that,
should any one take upon him to attempt it, let him know that
he will thereby incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of
the holy apostles Peter and Paul.
“Given at Rome, at Sancta Maria Major,
on the 7th of August, in the year
of our Lord 1814, and the 15th of
our Pontificate.
(Signed) “CARDINAL PRODATAIRE.
“CARDINAL BRASCHI.”
The moment the bull of 1814 had given to the Society a new existence,
nearly two hundred fathers, who had survived the calamities of 1773,
re-assembled at the Gesù, and in the novitiate of St Andrea in Rome.
Along with the old remains of the Company, many young Jesuits, who
during the suppression had been received into the order in their houses
in Silesia, Russia, and Palermo, re-entered the abode of their past
glory and splendour, and opened their hearts to new and brilliant
prospects. Neither were they deceived in their expectations. In those
first moments of violent reaction in Italy, the priests and monks were
considered as almost saints, and Pius VII. was actually worshipped as
God. The overthrow of Napoleon’s empire was in Italy considered as due
to the hand of God, who had punished him for laying his impious hand on
the anointed of the Lord—the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Napoleon, who was
considered in France as the restorer of religion, was in Italy regarded
as the greatest heretic who had ever lived—worse than Luther, Calvin,
Zuingle. As the ignorant and bigoted people of the peninsula, at such
an epoch, made religion consist in monks, nuns, and processions, so the
man who had abolished these was in their eyes the greatest enemy of God
and religion; and those friars, though held in very little consideration
as individuals, were, when re-instated in their convents, cheered and
worshipped. Even those whose sentiments were anything but of a religious
character, thinking that the clerical party would now re-acquire the
supreme sway, and would exercise it in a more absolute and exclusive
manner, feigned to be devoted to the reigning power, either to avoid
persecution or to obtain favour as devout supporters of the Roman
Catholic faith. Thank God, this is no longer the case.
The Order of the Jesuits, above all, fixed the attention of every one,
and admission into it was sought with passionate eagerness, as the surest
way to fortune and consideration. Many younger brothers of good families
entered the novitiate of St Andrea, which had the rare honour to see as
a postulant for admission into the brotherhood, a once crowned head.
Charles Emanuel of Savoy, who had already renounced the crown of Sardinia
in favour of his brother Vittorio, entered the novitiate, fulfilled with
unfeigned humility all the duties of a novice, and died some three or
four years after, asking, as a last favour, to be buried in his garb of a
Jesuit.
Another fortuitous circumstance soon came to relieve the Jesuits from
great difficulties. In 1820, the death of General Barzozowski, whom
Alexander would never permit to leave Russia, and without whom nothing
definitive could be done, put an end to this anomalous state of things.
The new election restored the chief of the Company to the metropolis of
Christendom; and from the Gesù, where Loyola and Ricci had sat, Fortis,
the elected General, now watched over the interests and the prosperity of
the Society, which he hoped to see again in all its former glory.
In our peninsula their progress was rapid.
——Come di gramigna,
Vivace terra,[426]
so Italy was soon covered with the noxious weed. Most of their former
establishments were given back to them, others they bought; and, in
perfect concord with the Court of Rome, as each stood in need of the
other, they set to work to reduce the unfortunate country to the lowest
possible degree of ignorance and degradation, to extinguish every noble
aspiration, to suppress every generous sentiment, and to force us into
that mould in which idle, debauched, and corrupt monks are cast. But
their united efforts, thank Heaven! proved ineffectual. The genius of
ancient Rome, though clad in sable, watched over us from the ruins of
the Coliseum, and from the summit of the Capitol, and pointed out to us
written on every stone of our cities, a page of glory, an inscription
of noble and heroic deeds! Yes! in the very names of our monuments,
even when they are not present to our eyes, there is something magical,
some mysterious power, which thrills all the fibres of the heart, and
makes one long to restore the glories of the past. And in this, we
believe, more than in anything else, is to be found the explanation
of that historical fact, that while in the middle ages the Popes were
almost supreme umpires of the different kingdoms of Europe, they could
never obtain a stable footing in Rome, but were often driven from it,
often besieged in their castles or made prisoners, while their court
and government were generally held in the greatest contempt. So now,
though the Jesuits were supported by all the petty Italian despots, and
by their master the Emperor of Austria, and though they almost had at
their disposal the thunderbolts of the Vatican and the dungeons of the
Inquisition, they could only persuade old women, and feeble and bigoted
men, but none of the thinking and active population of Italy. The
revolution of 1848 proved once more how deeply rooted was the hatred of
the Italians against the brotherhood of Loyola, the only religious order
among such an immense number which was forcibly expelled from the whole
peninsula.
However, the Jesuits, the moment they were re-established, lost no time
in invading other countries where they thought they could retrieve their
fallen fortunes. Immediately after the restoration, they re-entered
Spain, France, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, and many countries in the
New World. We shall endeavour, in the little space left to us, to sketch
the history of the fathers in those different countries.
The Jesuits, to the number of about one hundred, mostly members of
the Society who had been expelled in 1767, re-entered Spain, and were
associated with Ferdinand VII. in all the acts of revenge which that
cruel and stupidly ferocious prince exercised upon the unfortunate
Spaniards. They increased so rapidly, that as early as 1820, they
numbered already 397 members.[427] But at that time the Castilians
revolted against the cruelty of the despotic king. Successful in their
revolution, they established the Constitution of 1812; and one of
the first acts of the Cortes was to enact a law which expelled the
Jesuits from all the Spanish dominions. But it was not long before
they re-entered in the rear of the French army, conducted by the Duke
of Angouleme, to replace Ferdinand on the throne, and became the most
efficient instruments of his bigoted and cowardly policy. In 1825, a
general military college was established at Segovia, and, strange to
say, the Jesuits were made the preceptors of those future officers in
all that was not strictly military. In 1827, another college for the
nobility and children of courtiers and chamberlains was established, and
also delivered to the Jesuits’ direction. But their prosperity was put
a stop to by the death of Ferdinand. The right of Isabella, the infant
daughter of the late king, was contested by her uncle Don Carlos, and
long and murderous civil war was the consequence of this contest. The
Jesuits took the part of the Carlists secretly at first, and acting only
as informers when they were able. In an _émeute_ in 1834, the people of
Madrid murdered some of them, and in 1835 they were legally abolished
by a decree of the legislature, sanctioned by the sovereign. But they
did not on that account quit Spain. They recovered their standing in
those provinces in which the armies of Don Carlos were predominant, and
were chosen as tutors to the pretender’s sons. They built a novitiate
in Quipuzoa, and seemed to set at defiance the government of the
country. After the convention of Vergara, Espartero caused them to be
expelled from their new colleges, and ordered them to leave the Spanish
territories; but although, since this epoch, they have no legal existence
in the land of Loyola and Xavier, according to the best information, in
1845, about 250 Jesuits were to be found there, apparently as single
individuals, but in reality forming part of the order, and being attached
either to the province of Belgium or to that of South America.
Their history in Portugal may be more summarily narrated. In 1829, some
French Jesuits, invited by the usurper Don Miguel, arrived in Portugal,
and were honourably received, as they pretend, by the grand-daughter
of Pombal, who offered to intrust to them four of her children to
be educated.[428] The authorities also contrived to get up a sort of
manifestation, given by the other monks on the Jesuits’ entrance into
Coimbra, where they stayed two or three years. But hardly was Don Pedro
master of Portugal, than, by a decree in 1834, he expelled the fathers
from all the dominions of his daughter Dona Maria. We are not aware that
there are many Jesuits now in Portugal.
In Germany, the fathers were far from regaining the position they had
formerly held. Austria itself refused to re-admit them. Metternich,
brought up in the school of Joseph II. and Kaunitz, was not disposed to
let the bad seed take root again in the German soil. However, when, in
1820, the Jesuits, expelled from Russia, passed through Vienna, they
found means to obtain permission to settle in Galicia, where they soon
opened schools and colleges, the principal of which were in Tournow and
Lemberg, and where they met with such success, that the latter college,
in 1823, counted 400 pupils. The number of Jesuits in the province went
on increasing, and their influence, especially over the rural population,
who are almost all Papists, is now all-powerful and irresistible. Now,
our readers, who remember the atrocious and inhuman acts which desolated
the unfortunate country in 1846, may form an estimate of the good which
their system of education has produced.
They also attempted to establish themselves in Styria, though with little
success. But in 1838, they were at last permitted to re-open their
former college at Innspruck, where they are now in the most prosperous
and flourishing state. In no other part of the German Confederation have
they a legal existence; and the late King of Prussia very wisely forbade
any of his subjects to pass into foreign countries to be educated by the
Jesuits.
In Holland, the Jesuits acted in very nearly the same way as they did in
Russia. It seems as if, at the time of the Suppression, the Protestant
countries, forgetful of all prudence, merely to shew their opposition
to the Papal Court, vied with each other in cheering and patronising
those monks whom Rome was persecuting. Even in England, Jesuits were
never so well treated, nor perhaps so prosperous, as during their legal
suppression. Some of the Jesuits recovered a standing in Holland, and
lived there unmolested and protected, till the French armies drove them
away, or obliged them to disguise themselves under another garb; but
they re-appeared in 1814, and with their wonted activity they began to
erect houses and novitiates. King William of Nassau tolerated them; but
it would appear that they were not contented with being tolerated—they
aspired to higher destinies. Spreading dissatisfaction among the Roman
Catholic population, they encouraged them not to accept of, or submit
quietly to, a constitution so unfavourable to their interests, and
were preparing materials for a revolution. De Broglio, the Archbishop
of Ghent, entirely devoted to the order, wrote in the same sense to
all his subordinates. Aware of their intrigues and machinations, the
government thought it necessary, by a decree of 1816, to banish them.
The audacious monks, instead of obeying, repaired to the archbishop’s
palace, as if to brave the laws. But the government maintained its
rights. A warrant was issued against De Broglio, who, however, took to
flight, and accompanied into France the Rector of the College of the
Jesuits. The fathers then left the country, but not all of them. “Some
sons of Loyola, nevertheless, remained on the spot directed by Father
Demeistre, and, enrolled under the standard of the Church, they fought as
volunteers.”[429] In other words, under different disguises, they kept up
their intrigues, and breathed the spirit of revolution into the Popish
population of Belgium. At the first opportunity, this spirit broke out.
“The revolution of 1830 was made in the name of the Catholics and of the
Jesuits.”[430] Very well! we like this bold and frank language; and the
Jesuits have our felicitation for having helped an oppressed people to
shake off a yoke which brutal force had imposed upon them. But then let
them never come again and assert they are a religious order, entirely
occupied in spiritual concerns, and quite indifferent to political
matters.
Since the revolution of 1830, the influence of the Jesuits has greatly
increased in Belgium, and this country is now one of the most flourishing
provinces of the order, numbering more than 400 members. The extreme
prudence and sagacity of Leopold has prevented them from doing much
mischief; but they have done their best to acquire a supreme sway in that
country, and to extinguish in it every civil and religious liberty. At
the very moment we are writing these pages, they are striving hard to
prostrate Belgium at the feet of their worthy protector, Louis Napoleon.
In France, the fathers have led a much more agitated and unsettled
existence since their expulsion in 1765. Portugal and Spain, in
expelling them, had resorted to such rigorous and universal measures,
that few or no Jesuits were to be found in the two countries for some
time after their banishment. But it was not so in France. No stringent
measures had been taken to see the decree of expulsion executed. The
Jesuits, it is true, had disappeared from their colleges and houses, and
dropped the long mantle and large-brimmed hat; but a great part of them
remained in the French territory, changing residences, and many of them
metamorphosing themselves into the Fathers of the Faith, or the Brethren
of the _Doctrine Chretienne_. Then, when the opportunity presented
itself, they re-appeared everywhere in their own garb, and nobody knew
whence they came, or where they had been. We find few traces of them
during the first years of the French Revolution of 1789; but the moment
Napoleon, for his own political ends, re-established the ancient form of
religion, and restored to the clergy some liberty to fulfil their duties,
the Jesuits, under the name of the Fathers of the Faith, re-appeared,
and set themselves at once to work, endeavouring, by new contrivances,
to re-acquire at least some of their lost influence and power. In 1800,
the sister of Father Barat, under the direction of her brother, founded
the Sisterhood of the Sacred Heart; while Father Baruffe established
the Congregation of the Sacred Family; the first to preside over the
education of the daughters of the aristocracy, the latter to instruct
governesses and servants, whom they distributed especially amongst
families whose secrets they were interested in knowing. Father Despuits
was still more audacious, and established the Congregation of the Holy
Virgin, in which he enrolled all sorts of persons, but particularly those
of the upper class of society, and military men as often as he could.
The two first institutions are at the present moment very flourishing
in France, and almost all the French nobility send their daughters
to be educated at the famous convent of _Les Oiseaux_, in Paris. The
Congregation of the Virgin decayed after the revolution of 1830.
However, Napoleon, alarmed at the progress and the intrigues of the
Fathers of the Faith, by a decree of Messidor, anno XII. (1804),
abolished the brotherhood, and, by another imperial decree of 1810, the
Congregation of the Virgin, and for some little time the Jesuits were
obliged to be more prudent and less meddling.
But, in 1814, those monks, who had for a moment disappeared from the
scene, came forth again more alive and more intriguing than ever.
They dropped the borrowed name of Fathers of the Faith, and reassumed
that of Jesuits. The congregations received a new impulse, and that
of the Virgin, above all, was eminently active in inducing military
men to join it. Rendered wise by past experience, they perceived that
they should never succeed in their designs without the concurrence, or
at least the neutrality, of the secular clergy. To disarm, then, its
animosity, which had been so ardent in former times, they spontaneously
renounced their privileges, and shewed the utmost deference to the
secular priests of all ranks. Father Simpson, the Provincial in 1819,
writing to his subordinate, says to him: “Let us remember that we are
only the auxiliaries of the secular priests, that we, in our quality of
monks, must look upon them as our superiors, and that St Ignatius has
given to our Society, as its distinctive title, _The Little Society of
Jesus_.”[431] We wonder whether Lachaise or Letellier would have written
so. Then, supported by a great part of the bishops, and encouraged by the
government, part of the Jesuits went over to France as missionaries, to
try what they could do to restore the reign of superstition and bigotry,
and to bring back France to the good old times of civil and religious
bondage; part again undertook to monopolise the education of youth;
and in both undertakings they were, with certain classes, prodigiously
successful.
But the sacrifices France had made to obtain liberty were of too fresh
date that it should quietly submit to a priestly domination, which had
become now too visible and threatening. Public opinion declared itself
so strongly and so irresistibly against all priests in general, and
against the Jesuits in particular, that the bigoted Charles X. himself
was forced, in 1828, to issue an ordinance which deprived the fathers
of the faculty of instructing youth, and providing, moreover, that no
person whatever should be admitted to teach without taking an oath that
he did not belong to any religious community not approved by law. The
Jesuits, however, secretly encouraged by the court, and supported by the
aristocracy, eluded these ordinances by a thousand different stratagems;
and, although not so openly, they never rested from their intrigues, and
from taking an active part in education.
The Revolution of 1830, due in a great measure to the aversion of the
French nation to the domination of the priests and Jesuits, again
dispersed them for a while. They left the scene; nobody knew when they
disappeared, whither they went, and when they returned, till, towards
1836, they came to be spoken of and pointed out as becoming numerous,
powerful, and dangerous; they, nevertheless, went quietly and prudently
on, continually progressing, till 1845, when an affair of money now, as
in 1761, again brought them into momentary trouble. A certain Affnaër—an
arch-Jesuit, it would seem, since he cheated his dupes by feigning to be
a converted sinner—became their confidential agent, and robbed them of
the immense sum of £10,000, of which embezzlement they remained ignorant
till he took to flight—(so poor they are!) The fathers had the imprudence
to apply to the tribunals. The swindler was indeed condemned, but at
the same time was brought to light the existence of the Jesuits, not
as private citizens, but as a religious community, already possessing
immense wealth and establishments of all kinds, till then almost ignored,
or at least overlooked—all this being contrary to the existing laws.
Thiers, courting popularity, called upon the government to advert to this
subject, and the parliament unanimously declared that it felt confident
that the ministry would see the laws of the land strictly executed. To
avoid an open rupture with Rome, Rossi was sent thither, to obtain from
the Pope and the General of the order a voluntary acquiescence in the
wishes of the nation. Roothaan, the then chief of the Society, more
prudent than Ricci, granted the request, and ordered his brethren to
quit their establishments. However, not to renounce all the advantages
they were deriving in educating the rising generation of Frenchmen, the
fathers established a college on the very limits of the French territory,
at Brugellette, and the French nobility sent their children either there
or to Fribourg, where a part of the French fathers had emigrated. Once
more the Jesuits were supposed to have left France. Little was seen of
them in the last two years of Louis Philippe’s reign, and during the
eventful year of 1848; but in ’49 they re-appeared, hesitatingly at
first, but more boldly afterwards; and now, in 1852, they possess such
an influence, that even the unscrupulous military usurper is obliged to
court their friendship. In 1845, the number of the Jesuits in France
amounted to 870.
In Switzerland, the bloody and inhuman acts by which the Jesuits sought
to enter Lucerne are of too recent and terrible recollection to require
to be related by us at length. The expedition of the Corps Franc, their
defeats, 112 dead, 300 wounded, 1500 prisoners, the Sonderbund, and
all the fraternal blood spilt in Switzerland in 1844, 45, and 46, must
be laid to the charge of the Jesuits, who insisted on entering Lucerne
against the will of half the population. Had they been true Christians,
and religious men, they would have renounced their projects of installing
themselves by force where they knew that the attempt would cost the lives
of so many of their Christian brethren, and an Iliad of miseries to the
unfortunate country.
Although we find few indications of the presence of the Jesuits in
England, after the accession of the house of Hanover to the throne, till
the last few years of the past century, Crétineau, who may be relied upon
as having written his apology of the Society upon the register of the
order, and under the dictation of the fathers, informs us that, “from
the day on which liberty was no more a deception, the Jesuits perceived
that they had no more to fear the extraordinary rigours of past times....
They then began to live in fixed abodes, at first in _secret_, then a
little more openly, and in community. Such were at first the missions
of Liverpool, Bristol, Preston, Norwich, and many other towns. A little
chapel was annexed to the house (which means, that an altar had been
constructed in a room); and without exciting the least suspicion, the
faithful could repair thither and pray.”[432] This, according to the
French historian, was the way in which they lived till 1795, when the
Jesuits of Liège, flying from the victorious republican armies of France,
sought a refuge in Great Britain which granted them that hospitality she
never refuses to the unfortunate. Then Mr Weld, a wealthy Roman Catholic,
with a liberality for which, whatever gratitude the Jesuits may owe to
his memory, England certainly owes him none, presented them with an old
manor and some property in Stoneyhurst, near Preston, in Lancashire.
Thither the worthy fathers instantly repaired, and at first conducted
themselves with all humility, avowing it to be their intention to earn
a subsistence solely by tuition. As we have said, the Protestants of
that epoch seem to have taken a sort of pleasure in protecting these
rebellious monks, and the more so, perhaps, because they persisted in
being monks against the will of Rome. Hence the Jesuits quietly settled
themselves in Stoneyhurst, _nemine contradicente_. By degrees, finding
all sorts of encouragement, they changed the manor into a college, where,
besides the boarders and pupils who paid them regular fees, they gave
gratuitous instructions to every one who would attend their classes.
Improvements to a great extent were made upon the house, by which it
was rendered capable of receiving at first 150, and subsequently, by
additional buildings, 300 pupils. Weld gave up to them a large tract of
land, and one of his sons entered the order. “All the ancient Jesuits
flocked to Stoneyhurst. Among the first were Fathers Stanley, O’Brien,
Lawson, Church, Jenkins, Plowden, Howard, and some others.”[433] All
together consecrated their cares “to make priests, and to form young men
equally devoted and learned, who should bring _into their families_ the
courage and the faith of which they gave and received the example in the
college.”[434] In a little while the college of Stoneyhurst was deemed
insufficient for the number of pupils who repaired thither from every
part; so that, within a quarter of a mile, at Greenhurst, was established
a seminary for boarding and educating boys preparatory to their entering
Stoneyhurst. The most striking characteristic of Jesuit education, as we
have already frequently remarked, was, and still is, that almost all the
persons educated in their colleges consider themselves in a certain way
attached to the order, and to the end of their lives work to their utmost
for its aggrandisement. And this art of binding to their Society all
their disciples, makes the Jesuits powerful and dangerous, especially in
those countries where they are adverse to the government or to a class of
citizens. We insist upon this consideration.
At Stoneyhurst, the ambition of the fathers rose with their prosperity,
and inspired their restless activity with bolder and more extensive
plans. The exertions of these same young men who were educated by them,
and some of whom had become priests, spread the seed of Jesuitism in
all parts of England, and, above all, in the surrounding neighbourhood
of Stoneyhurst, where their large properties and considerable annual
expenditure gave the fathers an additional influence, so that soon Roman
Catholic chapels were to be seen over all the country round; and a modern
author[435] affirms, that while, before the establishment of the Jesuits,
there were only five Papists near Stoneyhurst, they were now numbered by
thousands.
From England, part of the successful colony of Ignatius passed over into
Ireland in the beginning of the present century, and at once fixed their
regards upon the most important position for acquiring an extensive
influence. Father Kenney, one of the three first Jesuits who migrated
thither, found means to be appointed vice-president of Maynooth College,
of which he became the leading and influential member, and in which have
ever since been taught the Jesuitical doctrines both in the matter of
theology and of discipline; so that it is a notorious fact, that of all
the Roman Catholic clergy, the English are those who profess the most
absolute and unrestricted principles of ultramontanism. As to Father
Kenney, who was indefatigable in his vocation, and had already acquired
an immense authority, some scruples now arose in the morbid consciences
of strict Papists, whether he really was a legitimate Jesuit, since he
had only taken his vows at Stoneyhurst while the Society had no legal
existence. Sensible of the justness of these observations, Kenney
hastened to Palermo, where the Society was in some sort re-established.
He was there received and recognised as a genuine son of Loyola, and
returned to Ireland to resume his office. But, as Maynooth College was
established only for the education of priests, Kenney thought of creating
another college for laymen. Clongowes was chosen for the purpose. Kenney
was appointed president of it, and his exertions were so successful in
attracting pupils thither, that, from 1814, the epoch of its opening, to
1819, it already numbered 250 pupils; while, by the liberality of Mary
O’Brien, a Popish devotee, another college was erected in the district of
King’s County.[436]
The moment the bull of 1814 relieved them from the interdict under which
they laboured, the number of Jesuits increased so very rapidly, that,
according to a return printed by order of parliament in 1830, Ireland, at
that epoch, possessed 58 fathers, and 117 were to be found in England.
To what extent their number has increased up to the present moment is
rather difficult to ascertain. The clause in the Emancipation Bill, which
forbids any man to make vows or to receive vows in England, or to come
into it after having made them elsewhere, obliges the Jesuits to observe
some moderation and secrecy. Not, indeed, that they pay any attention,
or submit to the law, because, as Crétineau expressly says, “the Jesuits
felt that such a law (the schedule on the religious communities in the
Emancipation Act) was enacted against them; but they _made little account
of it_,”—_Ils en tinrent peu de compte_.[437] But they use some prudence,
to avoid trouble, if possible, and because it is their practice not to
oppose boldly any measure, but to find a certain pleasure in eluding
the law, and thus shew themselves more cunning than their neighbours.
Nevertheless, whoever should inspect the general register kept in the
Gesù in Rome, might get at the exact number of the four avowed classes
of the Jesuits—novices, scholastics, coadjutors, and professed; but who
could tell the number of persons belonging to the fifth secret class,
who, by the confession of Father Pellico, constitute the strength and the
power of the Society, and who, we may add, render it also very dangerous?
Who can count those innumerable agents who, partly intentionally,
partly in ignorance, are actively employed in furthering the success of
the well-contrived and deeply-laid plans of the fathers—those secret
conspirators against the civil and religious rights of mankind? Nobody
can; and in this, we repeat, lies the danger. A Jesuit, when known, is
as little dangerous as a robber who should give you intimation of his
intention to steal your property. Should they present themselves boldly
and frankly, and say: “Here we are—we, the Jesuits, the most determined
adversaries of the Protestant faith, the most strenuous supporters
of the Court of Rome. Renounce your religion, burn your Bible, tear
your Thirty-nine Articles, and embrace the doctrine of Rome, which is
the only true one; you may believe it on our word.” Should they speak
so, they would effect no mischief at all. But the manner in which the
Popish missionaries attempt to proselytise is a very different one,
and shews that their religion is not in itself forcible, and that it
does not possess such irresistible evidence of truth, that the simple
and unvarnished exposition of its principles is sufficient to persuade
one to embrace it. From the tiny images distributed by monks to little
boys, to the gorgeous pageant, to the theatrical representation of the
Vatican, all is intended to be the means of proselytising heretics, or
of retaining believers in the communion of their Church. Then comes the
confessional for those who wish to sin in all surety of conscience; then,
again, masses and indulgences for those whose sins could not be cleansed
by the absolution, but required the excruciating fires of Purgatory.
Formerly, in the good old times of Popery, they resorted to still more
persuasive arguments; witness the unfortunate Albigenses, Huguenots,
Indians, and many others, who were so blind as not to see in Popery a
revelation of Him who is at once the Father of Mercies and the Father of
Lights. Nor does the agent of Rome, and, above all, the Jesuit, expound
at once the whole system of his religion, such as it is; but, with
diabolical dexterity, he first insinuates himself into the confidence
of the man he has marked for a proselyte, captivates his benevolence by
all sorts of arts, and then, step by step, he leads him as a convert into
the fold of the modern Babylon. The same method is resorted to by those
individuals who aim at wholesale conversions. They bring one to apostasy
in the name, so to speak, of one’s own religion. See, for example, the
Puseyites; observe their progressive march from their first tracts, in
which loads of abuse were heaped upon Popery, to the recent attempt to
introduce auricular confession, and you will discover the same proceeding
as that by which the Roman agent—the Jesuit—endeavours to convert—we
should say seduce—a single individual. And who would take his oath that
Dr Pusey does not belong to that fifth secret class of the Order of
Jesus? or that my lord Bishop of Exeter is not one of its members? We
could not affirm the fact, of course, but no more would we deny it. What
we know, and what ought to be well considered and borne in mind by all
English Protestants, is, that the Jesuits are loud in their praises of
the Puseyites, and that they frankly confess that this Anglican sect will
be the means of bringing back England to the Roman communion. May God
avert the ill-omened prediction! Let our readers well ponder upon the
following extract from Crétineau, who, after having traced the history of
the Puseyites from its origin, and exalted to the skies their principal
leader, says:—“The Puseyites, carried away against their wills, by the
force of evidence, towards the Roman faith, pretended, it is true, that
they would never go over to Rome. Nevertheless they, in fact, embraced
one part of her dogmas and even her practices. A certain number of
their disciples went frankly back to Catholicism. From April 1841, the
publication of tracts had been suspended, it is true, but the party was
at no loss for means for propagating its doctrines. It reigned in many
seminaries and universities; it spread in America, and even in India.
_The British Critic_ went on with its quarterly labours; and renouncing
by degrees its attacks against Rome, it exercised its learned hostilities
against the Reformation of the sixteenth century.... This school
(Puseyism), in its pacific progress, shakes Anglicism _from its base_.
It exercises an immense influence for the extent of its reports and its
literature, and makes numberless proselytes. Many Puseyites, carried away
by the truth, were not long in renouncing their theories. They sought a
logical unity: the Church of Rome offered it to them, and they accepted
of it!”[438] We add no comment.
To return to our history, we say that the influence of the Jesuits in
the three kingdoms has increased since 1814, and its bad effects may
be daily traced. We would almost be bold to assert that every obstacle
which has come in the way to impede the progressive march of a free and
powerful nation, is, to a certain extent, due to the hidden hand of a
Jesuit. It must be borne in mind that Rome, of all things, desiderates
the ruin of heretic England, and endeavours, to the utmost of her power,
to create troubles and difficulties to that free country; and if this
be admitted, we shall remind our readers that all the arduous missions,
all the delicate and secret undertakings for that purpose, since the
times of Salmeron and Brouet, were always intrusted to the fathers. The
secular priest, especially in countries distant from Rome, looks upon
the Jesuit as his superior in knowledge of the affairs of religion, as
better informed of the intentions of Rome; and is always disposed to
shew all deference to his advice, and not seldom to execute his orders.
“Already, from 1829,” according to Crétineau, “the Jesuits were the
right arm of the bishops, the living models proposed by the prelates to
the clergy.”[439] And this renders the Jesuits more dangerous than any
other religious community. Indeed, I would rather see all the various
species of those parasite animals called monks transplanted into the
English soil, than let one Jesuit live in it a single day; and it is not
without good reason that we speak so in this Protestant country. The
order of the Jesuits was purposely instituted to combat, to extinguish
Protestantism; and we have shewn whether the fathers were scrupulous
about the means they employed to effect their object. The extirpation
of heresy is their principal occupation, the work which renders them
meritorious in the eyes of Rome. Deprive the Jesuits of the vocation of
annoying, persecuting, or converting heretics, and they become the most
insignificant of all corporations, having no end whatever. Every monastic
order is distinguished by a peculiar character. Plots and machinations
against Protestants, and against all civil and religious freedom, are the
characteristics of the Jesuits. A Benedictine monk will sit calmly in
his very comfortable room, sip his chocolate, take a hand at whist, and
not even dream of converting any one. A Franciscan, of any denomination,
will sit jocosely before a succulent dinner, which he has provided by
going from door to door, distributing, in return for provisions, snuff
and images, without uttering a word about his or your religion, and only
relating some pleasing anecdotes of the holy founder of his order, St
Francis. A Dominican will assuredly report your conduct to Rome, and
will try to convert your daughter to——his principles, but will care
very little about the conversion. The Auto-da-fè, in which he formerly
delighted, was regarded by him as a means not so much of converting
heretics, as of procuring for himself a barbarous pastime. He was
forbidden to assist at bull-fighting! The Jesuit, on the contrary, has,
as we have said, no other occupation or desire than to make converts;
and this we need not take the trouble to prove, since they themselves
confess it. They glory in it, and it forms their title to the gratitude
of the Holy See, and of all bigoted Papists. We will not say that other
Roman Catholic priests will not endeavour to make converts. Nay, they are
obliged by their calling to labour hard at it. In their orisons, in their
anthems, in all the solemn ceremonies of the Church of Rome, prayers are
addressed to the Almighty, not so much for the conversion, as for the
extirpation of heretics; and every bishop takes an oath to do his utmost
for this purpose; so that a Roman Catholic priest must either neglect
the principal duty of his ministry, or become the bitterest enemy of all
Protestant institutions, if not of every Protestant. Yet they are not as
the Jesuits, prepared to resort to the most criminal arts to bring about
conversion.
The conduct of the Jesuits in Holland, Prussia, Russia, clearly proves
that no benefits can ever make any impression on that fraternity, or
prevent them from conspiring your ruin; and if Protestant England do not
soon awake to a sense of her danger, we fear she will repent, too late,
of having fostered in her breast those poisonous vipers. Behold what
is going on! See whether Romanism has ever been so menacing! See the
arrogance of the Court of Rome! Behold the almost uninterrupted state
of rebellion in which the priests keep the fanatic Papists of Ireland,
and be sure that such would not be the case if you had not Jesuits
among them. All our life long we have fought for equality of rights,
for civil and religious liberty, and we would not preach intolerance
now. We should like to see no difference whatever in respect of civil
rights and privileges between Roman Catholic laymen and Protestants; but,
most assuredly, we would execute to the letter the clause against the
religious fraternities, and think long before we should grant money to
bring up a set of priests, who, from the very nature of their calling,
are strictly bound to sue for your destruction.
I beg to be excused for having indulged in these remarks. They are not
vain declamations; I trust to be believed. I have been born and brought
up among monks and Jesuits; and it is because I thoroughly know them,
that, grateful for the hospitality afforded me, I warn England to beware
of all monks, but especially of Jesuits. They are inauspicious birds,
which cannot but infect with their venomous breath the pure and free air
of Great Britain.
We shall now conclude our history with a chapter on the present condition
of the Company in Europe.