The New Conspiracy Against the Jesuits Detected and Briefly Exposed Part 1

The New Conspiracy.

by R. C. Dallas.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

GEORGE CANNING, M. P.

HIS MAJESTY'S AMBa.s.sADOR EXTRAORDINARY TO

THE COURT OF PORTUGAL, _&c._ _&c._

SIR;

Your absence from this country, and the observation of the historian, which I have adopted as a motto, will plead my excuse for dedicating this volume to you, without a previous intimation of my wish for that honour to my work and to myself. "The causes {vi} of the ruin of the society of Jesuits, with its circ.u.mstances and effects, are worthy of your attention." I have bestowed a considerable degree of labour in making myself acquainted with them, and, having been induced to throw the result of my inquiries into the form of a book, I know not to whom I can better present it than to a man, who, among the services which he has been active in rendering to his country, in her legislation and letters, has been the liberal advocate of the catholic body in general, and who, I am confident, will be pleased to see any society, or any individual, rescued from opprobrium, which time and colouring may have fixed on character. You are on the spot, Sir, where the Jesuits were persecuted with the greatest virulence; a circ.u.mstance, to {vii} my apprehension, not the most favourable to the investigation of truth, as it may well be imagined, that the prejudices, which were raised by the unprincipled and unrelenting minister of Joseph I, of Portugal, have too strongly enveloped it to be easily removed: but there are minds gifted with a discernment approaching to intuition, and, if any man can unweave the web, which has been spun around this unfortunate society, to your penetration may it be trusted. I have examined the subject with sincerity and disinterestedness, and, from conviction, I feel such interest in the establishment of the facts which I have stated, and the conclusions which I have drawn, that I dare hope that what I here offer to your consideration will one day be corroborated by testimony and {viii} talents, that shall remove all the doubt which the feebleness of my pen may leave upon it.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient and

humble Servant,

R. C. DALLAS.

_September 4, 1815._

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PREFACE.

Having formerly occupied my thoughts on the subject of promoting the knowledge and practice of religion among the Negroes in the West Indies, I was naturally led to inquire into the means, which had been successfully adopted in the catholic islands. I traced them to the enthusiastic labours of the clergy in general, particularly the Jesuits. The conduct of the fathers of that society in South America, not only excited in me admiration, but the highest esteem, veneration, and affection, for that enlightened and persevering body in the Christian cause, who had spread over the immense regions of that {x} continent more virtue and real temporal happiness than were enjoyed by any other quarter of the globe, as well as a well founded hope of eternal felicity, by the redemption of mankind through Christ. This undeniable merit made such an impression on my mind, that I never gave credit to the horrors, which have been attributed to the society.

Among the objects of my attention, during a late residence in France, the restoration of the order became an interesting one, affording me some pleasing conversations, and inducing me to search into authorities respecting the actions and character of men, whom I had learned to venerate and to love, the result of which was a confirmation of my early predilection. On my return from the continent a short time since, I met with a pamphlet {xi} lately published, ent.i.tled "A Brief Account of the Jesuits," the ostensible object of which is to render the order odious, but the real one is seen to be an attempt to attach odium upon catholics in general, in the present crisis of the catholic question. I learned, from a literary friend, that this pamphlet had originally appeared as Letters in a newspaper, and that they had been answered in the same way, but that the answers had not been republished. These I obtained and perused. I received much satisfaction from them, and thought them worthy of being preserved.

They did not, however, appear to me sufficiently full upon the subject, and I therefore resolved to publish them in the form of a pamphlet, with a preliminary statement. I consequently renewed my inquiries, and the more I inquire the more am I satisfied, that my veneration for this body of Christian instructors is not misplaced. {xii}

It is perfectly evident to me, that there was an unjust conspiracy, which originated in France, to destroy the Jesuits; and that it terminated successfully about the middle of the last century. It is not an easy task to unfold to its full extent the injustice and various iniquities of it, since even respectable historians have been led away by the imposing appearance, which the then undetected and half-unconscious ingenious agents of jacobinism had, by every expedient of invention, of colouring, and of wit, given to the hue and cry raised by those bitter enemies of the order, the university and parliaments of France, and by some ministers of other governments, particularly by the marquis de Pombal, the minister of the king of Portugal. It is not my intention to undertake so laborious a task, but I trust, that the following exposition will unfold sufficient {xiii} of the injustice, which has been so unfeelingly and indefatigably heaped upon the Jesuits, to convince every unprejudiced man, that the suppression of the order has been injurious to society, and that the revival of it, far from being dangerous, must be beneficial. I am not afraid, that this expression of my sentiment will draw upon me any suspicion of disaffection to the state, or the established church; my sentiments are well known to my friends, and have been more than once publicly professed. The benefit, which I think will arise from the restoration of the society, will consist more particularly in the active and zealous cultivation of Christian virtues, and a spirit of LOYALTY among the catholics of all countries, whether protestant or catholic; and, unless we mean to say, with some of the furious reformers, that the religion of the catholics is to be {xiv} extirpated altogether, it is absurd to say, that they shall not have their best and most active instructors.

When this volume had nearly gone through the press, in the course of reading I met with the following curious pa.s.sage, extracted from a Letter to a n.o.ble Lord by a Country Gentleman, ent.i.tled "Considerations on the Penal Laws," &c. published by the Dodsleys, of Pall-Mall, so long ago as 1764, about two years after the suppression of the Jesuits in France, and eleven previous to their total suppression by Clement XIV; I insert it, as I think it will not be unacceptable to the reader:--"The rising generation are now forming their principles on the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Argens, and the philosopher of Sans-Souci; to whom may be added a long catalogue of authors of our own {xv} country. In FRANCE _grave magistrates already celebrate and_ THE FIRST COURTS OF JUDICATURE echo with the praises of _Julian and Diocletian_; calculations are made, and the period is pretended to be fixed, when Christianity is to be no more. The powerful weapon of ridicule is employed not against popery alone, but to render contemptible the whole Jewish and Christian revelation." The _grave magistrates_, and _first courts of judicature_, are no other than _the French parliaments_, who, we are informed by a member of the lower house, were "ever ready to support the national independence[1]:" we see by what steps, and we have felt with what success.

In the following pages, I have shown, {xvi} that those _courts of judicature_ (which, far from being the immediate organs of the monarchs of France, as the same member a.s.serts, were, for the greater part of the last century, in constant opposition to them, and the organs of rebellion) had conspired to effect the destruction of the Jesuits; and, I suspect, that "the ma.s.s of information," which supplies the proofs of the nascent revolutionary spirit, and which is to be met with in the histories of all Europe, are doc.u.ments resulting from the piques and resentments of Pombal and other arbitrary ministers, who chose to take the consciences of their princes under their own care. These doc.u.ments, afforded indeed by a most respected character, are nevertheless open to all the objections that arise from the principles and history of the intrigues of the ordinances alluded to. There is however some decency in recurring to {xvii} ordinances to found charges upon; the enemies of the Jesuits were not always so nice, as the following extract from one of their calumniators will show:--"When the Jesuits revolutionized Portugal, in 1667, and placed on the throne the infant don Pedro, sir Robert Southwell was there, as our amba.s.sador from Charles II. His very curious correspondence with the duke of Ormond and lord Arlington is extant, and is a precious fragment of a great political event. The silent intrigues of the Jesuits do not seem to have been known to sir Robert; but, according to the _Recueil Chronologique_, published by THE COURT OF PORTUGAL, it is evident they were the princ.i.p.al actors, who, having overturned the monarchy, afterwards suppressed the democracy, and then, subst.i.tuting an apparent aristocracy, reigned for some time over Portugal, concealed under that {xviii} cloak." This is a fine specimen of the warfare carried on against the society. The amba.s.sador's ignorance of the intrigues of the Jesuits is not brought forward as a proof of their innocence, but as a reason why we should believe Pombal. As to the revolutionizing Portugal, and placing don Pedro on the throne, the amba.s.sador could have been no stranger to the real causes of don Pedro's being proclaimed regent during the life of his brother Alonzo, from the incapacity of the latter, and the intrigues, first of his mother, and afterwards of his wife, the princess of Nemours.

I would here leave the reader, with this fact fresh on his mind, to enter upon the book before him, but that I wish to detain him a moment longer to request him to carry also along with him the a.s.severation {xix} of the author, that he is entirely unconnected with the individuals of the body, whose character it is the object of this volume to place in a just point of view. Though familiar with accounts of the society, I am unacquainted with a single individual of it. The interest I feel is that which has been inspired by their virtues, and by the injustice and cruelty of their enemies, which I have ascertained to my complete conviction.

INTRODUCTION.

If there were a question whether there should be a change in the religion of the state, or whether the sceptre of Great Britain were better placed in the hand of a protestant or a catholic prince, my voice, slender as it is, should eagerly profess my attachment to the monarchy, and to the church of England. But no such question exists, or is likely to exist, in the contemplation of British subjects, of any persuasion or denomination whatever. It is with this conviction {2} on my mind, that I have resolved to publish the result of my inquiries respecting the Jesuits, and to show, that they do not merit the virulent slanders with which they have been attacked, or the treatment, horrid and inhuman, which they were made to suffer. A violent pamphlet, ent.i.tled "A brief Account of the Jesuits,"

lately republished from a newspaper, shall serve to direct me over the ma.s.s of abuse, which I purpose to clear away in such a manner as to enable the reader to proceed, without prejudice, to the perusal of the following Letters, to which partiality might otherwise be attributed. They are replies to some of the charges of the writer of the pamphlet, and they also appeared in a newspaper, with the signature of _Clericus_, the a.s.sailant having a.s.sumed that of _Laicus_, which I mention, as it may be convenient for me to use these names occasionally.

I purpose, 1st, to make some remarks on the objects of the author of the pamphlet, in his attack upon the Jesuits, and on his mode {3} of conducting his argument: 2dly, to examine the character of the authorities against the Jesuits, called by the writer historical evidences; and of those in favour of them; and to notice some of the charges against the society: 3dly, to give a brief account of the order, and of the fundamental character of it, with the prominent features of the Inst.i.tute of Loyola, contrasted with the libellous _Monita Secreta_: and, 4thly, to conclude with observations arising out of the preceding subjects, and on the necessity of making religion the basis of education.

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CHAPTER I.

_Remarks on the Objects of the Author of "A brief Account of the Jesuits," and on his mode of conducting his Argument._

The professed objects of the author of a pamphlet, ent.i.tled "A brief Account of the Jesuits," as stated in a preface, are "to examine the propriety of extending papal patronage and protestant protection to the Jesuits, and, as stated in page 2 of the pamphlet, to show, that _the revival of the order_ is so pregnant with danger as to call for the interference of parliament." The plan he pursues to effect these objects is, to give a summary of the history of the order, to furnish some _historical evidences_ in support of its correctness, and to argue from these for the affirmative of his proposition. The plan is well enough laid; but the author {6} has executed it in such a manner as to make it evident, that he was not in search of truth, that he deceives himself if he thinks he was, that he is only a violent and abusive disputant, that he is an enemy to the catholics in general, and that, the question on their claims being exhausted, he renovates the combat by attacking them through the sides of the Jesuits. When an advocate handles a cause, which it is his _duty_ to gain for his client, we know, that he brings forward every fact, and urges every argument, that tends to support the positions on which his cause hinges, sedulously masking every circ.u.mstance that contravenes his statement, and avoiding every suggestion that weakens his reasoning upon it. But the man, who is in pursuit of truth, of whatever nature it be, looks at his object on all sides; he handles it, not to make of it what he wishes, but to determine what it is; he a.n.a.lyses, he re-composes; he takes the good and the bad as he finds them, and truth results from his investigation. Let us see which of these two characters belongs to the writer of the pamphlet. Every word of his {7} "Historical Summary" is intended to place the Jesuits in an odious point of view; nor is a single sentence admitted into it by which one could be led to imagine, that any thing good had ever originated from them, or that they were not universally demons in the shape of men. The writer goes in search of matter to compile his Summary, and he finds an account of the Jesuits composed on the authority of various publications, which have appeared at different times.

In a part of this narrative, he finds all that has been said to blacken the order, and, also, a genuine pa.s.sage of their history, which no man of any feeling can read without enthusiastic admiration; now, would the writer, who was in search of truth, have selected only that which was calculated to produce condemnation, without giving his reader an opportunity of comparing facts and drawing his own inferences? Yet this is really the case with this enemy of the catholic cause, whose Summary is verbatim extracted from Robertson's Charles V, as far as it answered the purpose of {8} his attack.

Who, after reading the part selected, would suspect, if he did not know it before, that the following paragraph, from the same elegant pen, closed the character of the Jesuits, and must have confounded the eye of their a.s.sailant, since it failed to wring a tribute of praise from his heart?--"But as I have pointed out the dangerous tendency of the const.i.tution and spirit of the order with the freedom becoming an historian, the candour and impartiality _no less requisite in that character_ call on me to add one observation: That no cla.s.s of regular clergy in the Romish church has been more eminent for decency, and even purity of manners, than the major part of the order of Jesuits. The maxims of an intriguing, ambitious, interested policy, _might_ influence those, who governed the society, and might even corrupt the heart, and pervert the conduct of _some individuals_, while the greater number, engaged in literary pursuits, or employed in the functions of religion, was left to the guidance of those common principles, which restrain men from {9} vice, and excite them to what is becoming and laudable[2]."

{10}

The author, in a note, acknowledges, that his Summary does not _wholly_ lay claim to {11} originality. It is, in fact, _all_ copied: why then did he not cite his authority? and, when he was copying, why did he omit to copy the pa.s.sages that stared him in the face? Clearly from an attorney-like motive, because it would have injured his cause, and would have prepossessed his reader with an idea, that, whether the charges against some of the rulers of the order were well-founded or not, the generality of the Jesuits were estimable men, devoting themselves to the good of mankind, and who had spread over the earth a very considerable share of human happiness: clearly because he foresaw, that his reader would argue with himself, that if, in despotic times, only a few busied themselves with political affairs, while the body at large were good men, engaged in zealously promoting the welfare, both temporal and eternal, of their fellow-creatures, it would be unnatural to suppose, that, in the present enlightened times, the many would become corrupt, or even the few engage again in intrigues dangerous to society; and that he {12} would conclude, that the labour of the author resolved itself into a new attempt against tolerating the catholic religion; while in favour of toleration he would find, in addition to the suggestions of his reason, his memory supplied with innumerable, irrefragable arguments, which for years past have resounded throughout the empire, in the houses of parliament as well as in the remotest villages, enforced by princes of the realm with all the energy of learning and of eloquence, as well as by individuals of every cla.s.s of men, in speeches, and in writings, in books, pamphlets, and the columns of such newspapers as are open to liberal discussion[3].

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The writer of the pamphlet, not satisfied with omitting whatever might tend to defeat his object, industriously rakes out the most atrocious imputations from the avowed enemies of the Jesuits, and cla.s.ses their authorities with genuine history, taking them for granted, never examining the hands through which they pa.s.sed, happy in having one and only one great name on his side, that of the celebrated and very extraordinary genius, Pascal. When the Provincial Letters were alluded to, as attacking a supposed lax system of morals, did not truth require that they should be stated to have been the satirical effusions of a writer, who had espoused the cause of the Jansenists, the violent opposers of the Jesuits; and that the ridicule which they contained had been declared by another great wit, who was no enemy to ridicule, nor friend to religion (Voltaire), to be completely misapplied. A lover of truth, when {14} balancing opinions as proofs, would not have failed to quote from him the following pa.s.sage: "It is true, indeed, that the whole book (_the Provincial Letters_) was built upon a false foundation; for the extravagant notions of a few Spanish and Flemish Jesuits were _artfully_ ascribed _to the whole society_. Many absurdities might likewise have been discovered among the Dominican and Franciscan casuists, but this _would not have answered the purpose_, for the whole raillery was to be levelled only at the Jesuits. These letters were intended to prove, that the Jesuits had formed a design to corrupt mankind; a design which no sect of society ever had, or can have."

With such enemies as the Jansenists, will it be thought extraordinary, that a thousand fabrications of those days blackening the Jesuits may be referred to? With such enemies as in later times appeared against them, in the host of new philosophers and jacobins, is it wonderful that there should be modern forgeries? {15} One such suffrage, as that which I have quoted from Robertson, is of itself sufficient to outweigh folios of charges originating in the jealous pa.s.sions of a rival sect, in the effusions of a mad mistaken philosophy, or in magisterial persecution, which, to use the vigorous language of a living genius, in "the destruction of the Jesuits, that memorable instance of puerile oppression, of jealousy, ambition, injustice, and barbarity, for these all concurred in the act, gave to public education a wound, which a whole century perhaps will not be able to heal. It freed the phalanx of materialists from a body of opponents, which still made them tremble. It remotely encouraged the formation of sanguinary clubs, by causing the withdrawing of all religious and prudent congregations, in which the savage populace of the Faubourg St.

Antoine were tamed by the disciples of an Ignatius and a Xavier. Such men as Poree and La Rue, Vaniere and Jouvenci, in the academic chairs; Bourdaloue, Cheminais, Neuville, L'Enfant, in the pulpit; {16} Segaud, Duplessis, and Beauregard[4], in the processions of the cross, in the public streets and ways, were, perhaps, alike necessary to secure tranquillity in this world and happiness in the next[5]."

In a.s.sisting my memory, I have been led to compare the writer's extracts from Robertson with the pages of the historian himself, and I have found him, not only occasionally disfiguring the style on points of little moment, by turning the words, but giving to the author's words a sense which they were not intended to bear, by means of Italic types and additions. For instance: the historian says, "As it was the professed intention of the order of Jesuits to labour with {17} unwearied zeal in promoting the salvation of men, this engaged them, of course, in many active functions." On reading Robertson's work, would any one imagine, that the author meant to insinuate, that the intention was insincere, and a mere cloak to political vices? Is it not clear from all he writes, as well as from this pa.s.sage taken singly, that he gave the Jesuits credit for their sincerity in devoting themselves to the salvation of men? Yet has the writer of the pamphlet, by causing the word _professed_ to be printed in Italics, called upon his reader to take his sense of Robertson's words, and to believe, that the word _professed_ implies deceit, instead of the _open_ and _declared_ intention of the Jesuits. Not content with this low falsifying of Robertson's ideas by Italic implication, he practises the same trick by an Italic addition of some lines of his own to the text of the historian, as follows: "_their great and leading maxim having uniformly been, to do evil that good might come_." Can any thing be more reprehensible? {18}

I will adduce one instance more of the disingenuousness of this writer.

Speaking, _exclusively_, of the Jesuits, he charges _them_ with "rendering Christianity utterly odious in the vast empire of j.a.pan[6]," and with "enormities in China Proper." To have implicated other priests would not, as Voltaire observed, answer the purpose: the Jesuits, as before, must be isolated to be recrushed. Now, in this, as in the other accusations, we shall find the anti-catholic writers including other orders. Let us see what one of these writers says upon this occasion: after speaking of the pride, avarice, and folly of the clergy, he tells us of an {19} execution of twenty-six persons, "in the number whereof were _two foreign Jesuits_, and several other fathers of the _Franciscan_ order." And a little after, the same writer says, "some _Franciscan_ friars were guilty at this time of a most imprudent step: they, during the whole of their abode in the country, preached openly in the streets of Macao, where they resided; and of their own accord built a church, contrary to the imperial commands, and contrary to the advice and earnest solicitations _of the Jesuits_[7]." The authority of the Encyclopedia Britannica will not be objected to by the enemies of the catholics; nor, I presume, will that of Montesquieu, who gives a very different reason for the Christian religion being so odious in j.a.pan: "We have already," says he, "mentioned the perverse temper of the people of j.a.pan. The magistrates considered the firmness which Christianity inspires, when they attempted to make the people renounce their faith, as in {20} itself most dangerous: they fancied that it increased their obstinacy. The law of j.a.pan punishes severely the least disobedience. They ordered them to renounce the Christian religion: they did not renounce it; this was disobedience: they punished this crime; and the continuance in disobedience seemed to deserve another punishment[8]." As to the enormities in China, we shall find, upon inquiry, that the Jesuits were not more responsible for those. The following is an extract from a geographical account of China: "P. Michael Rogu, a Neapolitan Jesuit, first opened the mission in China, and led the way in which those of his order that followed him have acquired so much reputation. He was succeeded by P. Ricci, of the same society, who continued the work with such success, that he is considered by the Jesuits as the princ.i.p.al founder of this mission. He was a man of very extraordinary talents. He had the art of rendering himself agreeable {21} to every body, and by that means acquired the public esteem.

He had many followers. At length, in 1630, the Dominicans and Franciscans took the field, though but as gleaners of the harvest after the Jesuits; and now it was that contentions broke out." This is not the place to enter particularly into the charges brought against the order; all I here mean to show is, with what want of candour the Jesuits are reviled; and I think, after what has been stated, it cannot be doubted, that the chief object of the writer of the pamphlet is to excite a ferment against the catholic claims, nor that his mode of conducting his proposed inquiry is that of a violent partizan, and not that of a genuine philosopher in search of truth.

Indeed, he almost a.s.sures us of it himself at the conclusion of his preface, where he says: "It may, perhaps, appear from the _inquiry_ (_that is, the attack_), that the crimes of the order are fundamental, and not accidental." In omitting, therefore, to cite doc.u.ments, which show that they are not fundamental, does he not admit, {22} does he not plainly say, _I have a point to gain, in which candour has no part; and_, quoc.u.mque modo, _it must be gained_? Such is the case, and I must allow him great perseverance in collecting t.i.tles of volumes long since forgotten; but to the lovers of truth, to the nation at large, and to the parliament in particular, or at least as far as my unpractised voice can be heard, I exclaim, _hunc cavete_, et similes ei.

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CHAPTER II.