members of the society, the good-will of strangers must be diligently cherished. Men in authority must be courted in proportion to the importance or insignificance of gaining their favourable notice. Yet it is said to be essential to refrain from adhering to either party in the feuds which may exist between Christian kings and princes; whilst an universal pliancy is observed, which can easily adapt itself to every side, however contrary in profession. And chiefly it must be provided that the favour of the Apostolic See may be secured; next, of secular princes, nobles, and men of principal authority, whose support or opposition would greatly facilitate or impede the success of Jesuitical exertion. When men are not well affected to the society, especially if they should be of no mean authority, prayer must be made for them, and all convenient means should be devised to gain their friendship, or at least to avert their enmity.2

25 ( ... curare ut amor et charitas omnium etiam externorum erga Societatem conservetur: sed eorum præsertim, quorum voluntas benè aut malè in nos affecta, multum habet momenti... B. In primis conservetur benevolentia Sedis Apostolicæ, cui peculiariter inservire debet Societas: deinde Principum sæcularium, et Magnatum, ac primariæ auctoritatis hominum. ... Sic itidem, cum aliqui malè affecti esse intelligerentur, præcipuè si homines sint non vulgaris auctoritatis, orandum est pro eis, utendumque rationibus convenientibus, ut in amicitiam redeant, vel certè adversarii non sint."-Const. P. X. § 11. and B.

The simple vows taken by the professed, according to the Constitutions, after profession, are in the note below."

26 From the First General Congregation, and confirmed by the Third:" Ego N. Professus Societatis Jesu, promitto Deo omnipotenti coram ejus Virgine Matre et totâ curia cœlesti, et coram R. Patre Præposito Generali, vel coram N. locum Generalis Præpositi tenente, nunquam me acturum quâcumque ratione vel consensurum, ut, quæ ordinata sunt circa Paupertatem in Constitutionibus Societatis, immutentur: nisi quando ex causâ justâ rerum exigentium videretur Paupertas restringenda magis.

"Prætereà promitto nunquam me acturum vel prætensurum, ne indirectè quidem, ut in aliquam prælationem vel dignitatem in Societate eligar, vel promovear.

"Promitto prætereà nunquam me curaturum prætensurumve extra Societatem prælationem aliquam, vel dignitatem; nec consensurum in mei electionem, quantum in me fuerit, nisi coactum obedientia ejus, qui mihi præcipere potest sub pœnâ peccati.

“Tum, si quam sciam aliquid prædictorum duorum curare, vel prætendere, promitto illum, remque totam me manifestaturum Societati, vel Præposito ejus.

Insuper promitto, si quando acciderit, ut hac ratione in Præsidem alicujus Ecclesiæ promovear: pro curâ, quam de animæ meæ salute, ac recta muneris mihi impositi administratione gerere debeo, me eo loco, ac numero habiturum Præpositum Societatis Generalem, ut nunquam consilium audire detrectem, quod vel ipse per se, vel quivis alius de Societate, quem ad id ipse sibi substituerit, dare mihi dignabitur. Consiliis vero hujusmodi ita me pariturum esse, promitto, si ea meliora esse, quàm quæ mihi in mentem venerint, judicabo. Omnia intelligendo juxta Societatis Jesu Constitutiones et Declarationes.-In tali loco, tali die, mense et anno, &c.

"LAUS DEO."

CHAP. III.

PRINCIPLES OF JESUITISM.

FROM the sketch of the Jesuitical Institute given in the last chapter, it appears that, strictly speaking, the General is, what he is indeed designated, the soul of the society: but still, in a larger sense of that descriptive term, the professed members, acting under his superintendance, may be considered as included in it. They were the casuists of the order. Their hours of retirement were occupied in brooding over its principles; in extending the sphere of their operation, by further subtleties and refinements; and in composing digests and manuals to facilitate their application.

It is to the literary labours, therefore, of these casuists, that reference must be made for a complete development of the Jesuitical system; and as this most important service has been already performed, under the highest authority, and by a judicial assembly above all suspicion of garbling evidence, whose researches are so

elaborate that the allegations are redundant to a great degree, the road to knowledge is of easy access. The volumes in question exhibit Jesuitism to the life; and all that is necessary to enable the general reader to become acquainted with it, and with the influence which it must have on the best interests of every community in which it obtains even connivance, is to select from the aforesaid volumes some of the accumulated citations, and to present them in an English translation. These will form the subject of the present chapter; as an introduction to which, and with the view of establishing the public character of the documents produced, a few of the society's identifications of itself in opinion and doctrine with all its individual members, are prefixed.

UNITY OF OPINION AND DOCTRINE.

Imago Primi Sæculi Societatis Jesu. Antuerpiæ, 1640.

The members of the society are dispersed through every corner of the world, distinguished by as many nations and kingdoms as the

1 See the Preface.

2 There are two editions of the Extraits des Assertions; the one in a single quarto volume, the other in 4 vols. 12mo. both printed at Paris, in 1762. The references in this chapter are to the latter.

earth has intersections: but this is a division arising from diversity of place, not of opinion; a difference of language, not of affection; a dissimilarity of countenance, not of morals. In this association, the Latin thinks with the Greek, the Portuguese with the Brazilian, the Irishman with the Sarmatian, the Englishman with the Belgian; and among so many different dispositions there is no strife, no contention; nothing which affords opportunity of discovering that they are more than one... The place of their nativity affords them no personal advantage... The same design, the same manner of life, the same uniting vow combines them.... The pleasure of a single individual can cause the whole society to turn and return, and determine the revolution of this numerous body, which is easily moved, but with difficulty shaken.(Proleg. p. 33, and Lib. 5. p. 622.)

LE MOYNE.

Remonstrance to the Bishop of Auxerre. By Father Le Moyne, of the Society of Jesus. 1726.

Thanks to the Divine Goodness, the spirit which animated the earlier Jesuits still survives among us; and by the same mercy we hope that it will never be lost. It is not a slight testimony in our favour, that in these troublous times not