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who served the commonwealth and religion, the court and the church, with equal ability, and was at last a cardinal. This institution was, in reality, intended to oppose the Jesuits. It has trained up, and still is training up, many persons eminent for piety, eloquence, and erudition. But through the influence of the Jesuits, who were its enemies, it fell under a suspicion of broaching new doctrines in certain of its publications. The priests who enter this fraternity do not divest themselves of private property; but, so long as they continue in the society, (and they are at liberty to retire from it when they please,) they relinquish all prospects of admission to any sacred office which has attached to it fixed revenues, or rank and honour. They are required faithfully to discharge all the duties of priests, and to make it their greatest care and effort to perfect themselves and others more and more continually in the art of profitably discharging those duties. Their associations, therefore, may not improperly be denominated schools for sacerdotal theology. In more recent times, however, they have in fact begun to teach elegant literature, and branches of learning connected with religion. With these we join the Priests of the Missions, an order founded by Vincent de Paula, who was canonized not long since. They were constituted a regular and legitimate society in 1632 by Urban VIII. To fulfil the designs of their founder, they must attend especially to three things: first, to improve and amend themselves daily by prayers, meditation, reading, and other things: secondly, to perform

been far from generally acceptable to the French prelacy, several of their body considering themselves to have prior claims. Ed.]

* See Habert de Cerisy, Vie du Cardinal Berulle, Fondateur de l'Oratoire de Jésus; Paris, 1646, 4to. Jo. Morin's Life, prefixed to his Antiquit. Orientales, p. 3, 4, 5. 110. Rich. Simon's Lettres Choisies, tom. ii. p. 60, and his Bibliothèque Critique, (which he published under the fictitious name of Sainiore,) tom. iii. p. 303. 324. 330, &c. On the character of Berulle, see Adr. Baillet's Vie de Richer, p. 220. 342. Mich. le Vassor, Histoire de Louis XIII. tom. iii. p. 397, &c. Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, tom. viii. cap. x. p. 53, &c. Gallia Christiana Benedictinor. tom. vii. p. 976, &c. [These Fathers of the Oratory must not be confounded with the Italian

order, of the same name, established in the preceding century, by Philip Neri. (See vol. iii. p. 264.) Both agree in this, that they devote themselves to learning: but the Italians pursue, especially, church history; while the French pursue all branches of learning. The founder of this order, Berulle, was in so high favour with the queen of France, Anna of Austria, that cardinal Richelieu envied him and his death, which occurred in 1629, was so sudden, that some conjectured he died of poison. The Fathers of the Oratory are not monks, but secular clergymen; nor do they chant any canonical hours. They are called Fathers of the Oratory, because they have no churches, in which the sacraments are administered, but only chapels or oratories, in which they read prayers and preach. Schl.]

sacred missions among the people living in the country towns and villages, eight months in the year, in order to imbue the country people with religious knowledge, and quicken their piety (from which service they derive their name of Priests of the Missions) and lastly to superintend seminaries, in which young men are educated for the priesthood, and to train up candidates for the sacred office. Under the counsel and patronage of the Priests of the Missions are the Virgins of Love or the Sisters of Charity, whose business it is to minister to the indigent in sickness. They originated from a noble lady, Louisa le Gras; and received the approbation of Clement IX. in 1660. The Brethren and Sisters of the pious and Christian schools were instituted by Nicholas Barre in 1678. They are usually called Piarists; and their principal object is the education of poor children of both sexes. But it would be tedious to expatiate on this subject, and to enumerate all the religious associations which, in the various parts of the Romish jurisdiction, were now set up with great expectations, and then suddenly neglected and suffered to become extinct.

5

§ 28. The society of Jesuits, by which as its soul the whole body of the Romish community is governed, if it could have been oppressed and trodden to dust by hosts of enemies, by numberless indignities, by the most horrid criminations, and by various calamities, must undoubtedly have become extinct, or at least must have been divested of all reputation and confidence. The French, the Belgians, the Poles, the Italians, have attacked it with fury; and have boldly charged it, both publicly and privately, with every species of crimes and errors that the imagination can conceive, as most pernicious to the souls of men and to the peace and safety of civil governments. The Jansenists especially, and those who accord with them partially, or wholly, in sentiment, have exposed its character in numberless publications, strengthened not merely by satire and groundless declamation, but by demonstrations, testimony, and documents of the most credible nature. This immense

3 M. Abely, Vie de M. Vincent de Paul; Paris, 1664, 4to. Helyot, loc. cit. tom. viii. cap. xi. p. 64. Gallia Christiana, tom. vii. p. 998, &c.

4 Gobillon, Vie de Madame le Gras, fondatrice des Filles de la Charité; Paris, 1676, 12mo.

6

Helyot, Hist. des Ordres, tom. viii. cap. xxx. p. 233.

Here is matter for a volume, or rather for many large volumes; for there is scarcely any part of the catholic world which does not offer for our inspection some conflict of the Jesuits

host, however, of accusers and of most decided enemies seems not so much to have weakened and depressed this very prudent sect as to have exalted it and enriched it with possessions and honours of every kind. For the Jesuits, without parrying the strokes of their enemies by replies and noisy disputation, but by silence for the most part, and patience, have held on their course, amidst all these storms, and reaching their desired haven, have possessed themselves, with wonderful facility, of their supremacy in the Romish church. The very countries in which the Jesuits were once viewed as monsters and public pests, have sometimes voluntarily, and sometimes involuntarily, surrendered no small share of their interests and concerns to the discretion and good faith of this most potent fraternity.7

with the magistrates, with other orders
of monks, or with the bishops and other
religious teachers; from which the
Jesuits, though they might seem to be
vanquished, yet finally came off victo-
rious. An attempt was made to bring
together all these facts, which lie scat-
tered and dispersed through numberless
writers, by a man of the Jansenist party,
who a few years ago undertook to write
a history of the order of Jesuits, if he
should be permitted to fulfil the pro-
mises in his Préface: Histoire des Reli-
gieux de la Compagnie de Jésus, tom. i.
Utrecht, 1741, 8vo. And no man was
more competent to finish the work com-
menced by him, than he; unless we are
to regard as fabulous, all that he tells
us respecting his travels and his suffer-
ings for many years, while exploring
the plans, policy, and operations of the
Jesuits. But this good man, impru-
dently venturing to go into France, was
discovered, it is said, by his enemies,
and assassinated. Hence his work was
carried no farther than the third volume.
[Dr. Maclaine, in his note here, written
at the Hague, about the year 1764, says
this man
was a Frenchman, named
Benard; that he was then living at the
Hague; that he had not been massacred
in France, but had returned in safety
from his visit to that country; that he
had never travelled, in the manner he
pretended in his preface, to collect in-
formation, but had collected all his in-
formation from books in his study, and
had made up the story of his travels to
amuse his readers and procure credit to
his book; and that no good reason was

J. M.

offered for his having violated his promise to continue the work. Schroeckh, (in his Kirchengesch. s. d. Reformat. vol. ii. p. 645,) tells us, on the authority of a Dutch journal, that the man's name was Peter Quesnel, with the surname Menard; that he had never travelled as he pretended; that he died at the Hague in the year 1774; and that the report was, he was persuaded, a little before his death, to burn the manuscript of the residue of his work, which was sufficient to fill 20 volumes. Tr.]

7

Perhaps no people have attacked the Jesuits with more animosity and energy, or done them more harm, than the French. Those who wish to learn what was said and done against them, by the parliament, by the university of Paris, and by the people of France, may consult Cæsar Egasse de Boulay, Historia Academiæ Parisiensis, tom. vi. p. 559-648. 676. 738. 742. 744. 763. 774 -890. 898. 909: who has scarcely omitted any thing relating to the subject. And what was the issue of all these most vehement contests? The Jesuits, after being ignominiously expelled from France, were first honourably received again, under Henry IV. in the year 1604, notwithstanding the indignation of so many men of the greatest reputation and of the highest rank, who were opposed to them. See the Mémoires du Duc de Sully; the late edition of Geneva, vol. v. p. 83, &c. 314, &c. In the next place, they were admitted to the government both of the church and of the state; and this felicity they retain quite to our times. [So it was when

§ 29. Literature and the sciences, both the elegant and the solid branches, acquired additional honour and glory in the better provinces of the Romish church. Among the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, the Belgians, all in communion with Rome, there was no want of men distinguished for their genius and their knowledge of various sciences and languages. But we must not ascribe this prosperous state of learning to the influence of the public schools. For in these, both of the higher and lower orders, its place has been maintained, even down to our own times, by that ancient, jejune, and barbarous mode of teaching, which blunts, retards, depresses the minds of men, instead of sharpening and raising them; while it loads the memory with a multitude of terms and distinctions, void alike of meaning and utility. But beyond the limits of these reputed seats of learning, certain great and excellent men guided others to a better and more profitable method of prosecuting study. In this matter the pre-eminence is justly due to the French; who being prompted by the native powers of genius, and encouraged by the munificence of Lewis XIV. towards learning and learned men, treated nearly all branches of literature and science in the happiest manner; and rejecting the barbarism of the schools, exhibited learning in a new and elegant dress, fit for captivating the mind. And how greatly the efforts of this very refined nation tended to rescue the other nations from scholastic bondage, no person, of but a moderate share of information, can well be ignorant.

§ 30. No means whatever could remove from the chairs of philosophy those misnamed Aristotelians, who were continually quoting Aristotle, while in reality they did not understand him. Nor could the court of Rome, which is afraid of every thing new, for a long time persuade itself to allow the new discoveries of the philosophers to be freely promulged and explained; as is manifest from the sufferings of Galileo, a Tuscan mathematician, who was cast into prison for bringing forward the Copernican

Dr. Mosheim wrote: but now

"Venit summa dies et incluctabile
tempus
Dardaniæ," &c.

And even in this France, where the
Jesuits were caressed by the great, and
feared by bishops and archbishops, the
conflagration began, which consumed

the whole fabric of the Jesuits' univer sal monarchy. Schl.]

8 This will be found illustrated by Voltaire, in the noted work already quoted repeatedly: Siècle de Louis XIV. and in his Additions to that work, [in the edition, Paris, 1820, vol. ii. cap. xxxi-xxxiv. Tr.]

system of astronomy. Some among the French, led on by René Des Cartes and Peter Gassendi, of whom, the former confuted the Peripatetics by his doctrines, and the latter by his writings, first ventured to abandon the thorny fields of the Aristotelians, and to follow more liberal principles of philosophizing. Among these there were some Jesuits, but a much larger number from among the Fathers of the Oratory and the disciples of Jansenius who distinguished themselves. Here will readily occur to many minds the names of Malebranche, Anthony Arnauld, Bernard Lami, Peter Nicole, and Blaise Pascal, who acquired lasting fame, by illustrating, perfecting, and adapting to common use the principles of Des Cartes.1 For Gassendi, who professed to understand but few things, and who rather taught how to philosophize, than proposed a system of philosophy, found no such great number to approve of him among a people eager for knowledge, sanguine, ardent, and impatient of protracted labour. Toward the close of the century, some of the Italians as well as other nations, began to imitate the French; at first indeed timidly, but afterwards, more confidently, as the pontiffs appeared to relax a little of that jealousy which they had entertained against the new views of the naturalists, mathematicians, and metaphysicians.

§ 31. But it is proper to notice here, more distinctly, who were the persons entitled to the praise of having preserved and advanced both divine and human learning in the Romish church. During a large part of the century the Jesuits were nearly the only teachers of all branches of learning; and they alone, among the monks, were accounted learned men. And the man must either be ignorant or uncandid, who can deny that many extraordinary and very learned men have been ornaments to that society. Lasting as literature itself will be the merits of Denys Petau (Dionysius Petavius 2), James Sirmond3, Peter Possin1,

• Gassendi's Exercitationes Paradoxæ adversus Aristoteleos, is in his Opera, tom. iii. p. 95, &c. and is an accurate and elegant performance, which did great harm to the cause of the Peripatetics. See the remarks already made, [in section I. § 31, of this century, p. 47. Tr.]

The reward which these men got for their labours, was, that they were charged with atheism by the Peripatetics; John Harduin, who was intoxicated with the Aristotelico-Scholastic

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