Is a larger spoon for a traitor to feed with the devil than any other
order; unclasp him, and he's a grey wolf with a golden star in the
forehead; so superstitiously he follows the pope that he forsakes Christ
in not giving Caesar his due. His vows seem heavenly, but in meddling
with state business he seems to mix heaven and earth together. His best
elements are confession and penance: by the first he finds out men's
inclinations, and by the latter heaps wealth to his seminary. He sprang
from Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier; and though he were found out
long since the invention of the cannon, 'tis thought he hath not done
less mischief. He is a half-key to open princes' cabinets and pry in
their councils; and where the pope's excommunication thunders, he holds
it no more sin the decrowning of kings than our Puritans do the
suppression of bishops. His order is full of irregularity and
disobedience, ambitious above all measure; for of late days, in Portugal
and the Indies, he rejected the name of Jesuit, and would be called
disciple. In Rome and other countries that give him freedom, he wears a
mask upon his heart; in England he shifts it, and puts it upon his face.
No place in our climate holds him so securely as a lady's chamber; the
modesty of the pursuivant hath only forborne the bed, and so missed him.
There is no disease in Christendom that may so properly be called the
King's evil. To conclude, would you know him beyond sea? In his seminary
he's a fox, but in the inquisition a lion rampant.