Transcribed from the 1852 J. H. Jackson edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org
THE JESUITS.
* * * * *
BY THE
REV. EDWARD HOARE, MA.,
INCUMBENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, RAMSGATE.
* * * * *
Second Edition.
* * * * *
LONDON:
J. H. JACKSON, ISLINGTON GREEN,
AND PATERNOSTER-ROW;
HATCHARD, PICCADILLY; AND SEELEYS, FLEET STREET.
1852.
* * * * *
_Protestant Associations_, _or other parties_, _desirous of circulating
large numbers of this pamphlet_, _may obtain them at a considerable
reduction_, _by applying to the Publisher_.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
THE first edition of the following pages was prepared as a Lecture for
the Islington Protestant Institute. The delivery of that Lecture has led
to a more careful study of the subject, so that in this second edition
there is a considerable quantity of additional information, which I trust
may be found important.
One gentleman has done me the honour of noticing the first edition, and
publishing a pamphlet in order to show that the constitution quoted on
page 32 should be rendered as the reader will find it there. It is a
matter of great regret to me that he should have thought it right to say
of the remainder of the lecture, that “statements which few surely can
believe, will, he trusts, produce in the minds of readers an effect the
very reverse of that intended.” If he had pointed out any inaccuracy, I
should have been only too happy to correct it; and any proof of error on
my part would have been much more satisfactory to his readers than a
general and unsupported insinuation. In the present edition he will
find, I believe, a clear reference to every important extract; and
abundant opportunity is afforded him, if possible, to disprove my
statements.
E. H.
_Ramsgate_, _Feb._ 12, 1852.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL OBJECT AND ORGANIZATION.
OF all the various human combinations that have ever risen to adorn or to
disgrace humanity, the Society of the Jesuits is perhaps the most
remarkable. The great men of the world have constructed mighty schemes
for its government, and the utmost powers of the human mind have again
and again been called out in order to combine men for the attainment of
some given end; but of all these varied schemes, I believe it may be
safely affirmed that there never yet has been known one so admirably
suited to its end, so beautifully adjusted in its parts, so wonderfully
adapted to the real condition of society, or possessing so extraordinary
a capability of applying its movements, so as to meet the ways and wishes
of all those countless characters upon whom its action is employed. The
question whether such an institution is a curse or a blessing to the
human race must, of course, depend on two things, viz., the object to
which its efforts are directed, and the principles by which they are
controlled. If that object be the honour of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
if those principles be in harmony with the Word of God, then, clearly, so
varied and effective an instrumentality must act most powerfully for the
benefit of man; but if, on the other hand, its object be to pervert the
truth and impede its progress,—if, again, the principles of its action be
flatly opposed, not merely to the Word of God, but also to the most
elementary maxims of even natural morality,—then it is equally clear that
the perfection of the instrument merely adds to its fatal power, and just
in proportion to the completeness of the machinery will be the deadliness
of the blight which it will produce upon society.
Now the avowed object of the Order of Jesuits is the support of the See
of Rome. In the original plan submitted by Loyola to Pope Paul III. it
was stated, “The Society of Jesus shall constitute a trained host, ready
at all times to fight for God’s vicegerent, the holy Roman Father, and
for the Roman Catholic Church, in which alone is salvation.” To this
declaration of their original designs, the Society has to this day
avowedly adhered; and although their countless intrigues against the
other Orders have shown very clearly that, in professing to serve the
Pope, they have had an ulterior end, viz., the aggrandizement and
exaltation of their own Order, yet we must always regard this as their
professed design, and form our estimate of the object of the Society by
our estimate of the value of the Popedom. There are, alas, those who,
trying it by this test, would pronounce its object good; but, thanks be
to God! there is, I verily believe, a vast, and vastly increasing,
multitude who have been driven by recent events to bring Popery to the
test of Scripture, and who have risen from the study with the deep and
indelible conviction that, instead of being our Lord’s vicegerent, the
Pope of Rome is the usurper of his sovereignty; and that, therefore, if
this be the object of Jesuitism, Jesuitism must be bad; and if this be
the end of its action, the better its machinery the worse its effects
upon the world.
The full principles of the Society it is extremely difficult to discover
or to describe, inasmuch as there appears to be a very wide difference
between the system as exhibited in its public documents and as carried
out in the practice of its members. There are countless facts in the
history of the order which prove conclusively that there is one code for
the world to look at, and another for the world to feel; a uniform for
inspection days, and a plain dress for common life. The constitutions
and other acknowledged documents are open to the world, but if we want to
know how the Jesuit will act when he has secretly wormed his way into the
confidence of our family, or to discover any real moral principle by
which the conduct of such an one will be guided, I believe that we shall
be utterly at a loss. He has his own secret instructions from his
superiors, and what they are will probably be never known out of the
Order, till the great day shall come when the secrets of all hearts shall
be made known.
We must be content, therefore, with only superficial information upon the
subject; but there is enough in the undoubted avowals of the Society to
amaze the conscience of any honest mind. It is true that we are able to
examine merely its authorized documents as prepared to meet the world’s
eye, and that when we have been through them all we shall know but a
fragment of the system; but at the same time we shall learn enough to
discover that, in order to the attainment of its object, the Society is
prepared to set aside all the dictates either of conscience or of
Scripture; and we shall also obtain ample evidence to convict the Church
of Rome of the awful guilt of abandoning honesty in order to secure
power, and of sacrificing moral virtue in order to attain supreme
dominion.
ORGANIZATION.
The Members of the Society are arranged in the following classes:—{10}
The Professed, who, in fact, constitute the real body of the Order. The
property of the Society is vested in them, and they only have a right to
attend a general congregation, or to vote at the election of a General.
They are all priests, and none are admitted till the age of twenty-five.
They are distinguished from the other classes by having taken four
instead of three vows, the rest having vowed three things, viz.,
obedience, poverty, and chastity, but the professed having added a fourth
promise, viz., absolute obedience to the Pope, as the Vicar of Christ.
Spiritual Coadjutors, whose office is to assist the professed in
spiritual things; such as preaching, hearing confessions, superintending
Colleges, &c. These, likewise, must all be priests.
Secular Coadjutors. These are all laymen, and their office is to fill
such secular offices as may be required, in order to promote the objects
of the Society. They act as servants and inferior officers in the
Colleges and other houses; but they are employed, when qualified, for
higher and more important duties. {11a} They are expected also to
influence their neighbours by conversation and other means. {11b} They
are drawn from all ranks, some being unable to read, and others educated
men. {11c} It is clear that this class must supply the Society with one
of the most effective of its agencies. The lay coadjutor may act in any
capacity, as a merchant, statesman, mechanic, or anything else which his
Superior may deem expedient, and may thus secure a powerful influence
without any person having the least idea that a Jesuit is in his
neighbourhood.
Approved scholars, or those youths who have been selected as likely to
prove suitable for the future purposes of the Society, and are being
trained in Jesuit Colleges. Although their education is not yet
complete, these scholars have been required to take the three vows, and
moreover to add the promise that they will be ready, when required, to
devote themselves to the service of the Society.
Those whose future rank is not yet decided, but who are admitted upon the
condition that they shall be employed in whatever way the Society shall
deem most suited to their talents.
To this list Mr. Duller adds another class, which he terms affiliated
members, or adjuncts, which he states includes even ladies. {12a} From
his account they appear to be bound to the Order by a compact that on
their part they will act as spies and agents in all their intercourse
with those amongst whom they dwell, while the Society undertakes in
return to guarantee to them a share in all those spiritual privileges
which, as it vainly pretends, it is the Jesuits’ prerogative to bestow.
{12b} The effect of these affiliated members and lay coadjutors is, of
course, enormous. They are like the thin fibres to the root, through
whose power the whole plant is nourished. They impart to the Order an
ever-penetrating power. They enable it to act without awakening the
least suspicion of its presence, to worm its way into the very heart of
Protestantism, and to secure the unsuspecting confidence of those whom
they desire to betray and ruin.
These different classes are all subject to the absolute and uncontrolled
authority of the General. This important officer is elected for life by
a general assembly of the professed members. He resides at Rome, and is
assisted by a small council, consisting of a certain number of
assistants, and elected representatives from the different provinces.
The whole world is divided into districts, over each of which one
assistant is appointed to preside; these districts are again subdivided
into “Provinces,” with a Provincial at the head of each, appointed by the
General for a given time, and these provinces contain their houses for
the professed, with a Provost at the head of each, their novice-houses,
colleges, seminaries, and, in Protestant-lands, mission-houses, where
their agents live unnoticed as secular clergy. There is therefore,
throughout, the most complete system of graduated authority. Every
Jesuit has over him a certain officer, to whose authority he is
absolutely subject; and the connexion is so perfect, that the command of
the General strikes without fail, like an electric shock, to the most
distant individual in the Order. The Provincial or the Provost is just
as much under authority as the priest or the novice; and there is the
same law of unquestioning submission in all the ranks and complex
ramifications of the Society; the result of which is, that the General
has at his command a devoted and well-compacted army, quartered
discreetly in every nation of the known world, and ready at any moment to
execute his designs. The same arrangements are equally effective in
supplying the General with information. The Provincials and other
officers are all required to send full reports of their several districts
to head-quarters. The characters, acquirements, dispositions, successes,
failures, and, in certain cases, even the confessions of the members are
registered and reported. Nothing of importance can occur in the most
distant outpost, without the report of it being forwarded to Rome; and if
it tends to throw light on the qualifications of any member of the Order,
it is recorded against his name, so as to supply the General with a
bird’s-eye view of the leading points in the character of every
individual under his command.