at establishing the Authority of and Subordination to other Superiors Some are for the direction of their Studies and Colleges others for the Government of their Novitiates and Profest-houses Others again are for their Diet and their Habits T is not possible to express the great care they ought to take of their Health The Means they use to that purpose are admirable They have in every Convent a Prefect or Overseer of Health whose care and Application is continually to Study the way of promoting the same A part of his Office is to examin if the Meat which is prepared for the Fathers Jesuits is good and well drest He is to look that they be not prejudiced in their Health by bad Air by too much Heat Cold immoderate Labour or by too great Application of Mind and ought to give notice of it to the Superior that he may remedy it One cannot but see in all these Rules the extrordinary great love which the Jesuits have for their own Bodies and one would think they do not believe another Life hereafter There is moreover amongst these Rules a great Catalogue to be seen of the Masses which their Priests ought say and of the Rosaries or Beads which those who are not Priests ought to recite every Month and every Week for their Benefactors as well living as deceased to get more of them if possible may be Every Jesuit Priest is also obliged to say one Mass every Month and those who are not Priests one Row of Beads or the third part of a Rosary for the Reduction of Hereticks especially those of the Northen Countries They do not say for their Conversion but for their Reduction being all one to them whether this be effected by way of Persuasion or by Fire and Sword They do declare in many places of their Rule that to teach Youth to preach the Doctrins of the Romish Church to execute Missions to assist sick Persons on their Death-Beds to hear Confessions and to extend as much as lies in them the Popes Spiritual Domination ought to be the chiefest employments of the Society They give directions for that purpose and make an express Vow of the last which they call a Vow of Obedience to the Pope or of Mission The Subjects who do compose this Company are considered five different ways either as Professed of four Vows or as Spiritual Coadjutors who are Priests or as Temporal Coadjutors who are Brothers or as Masters and Students or lastly as Novices They have particular Rules for all these Degrees and Conditions The General is above all these Orders and they give to him the Glorious Titles of God's Legate Vicar of God's Republick which is the Order of the Jesuits His Generalship is perpetual and he is only subject to the Pope His chiefest business besides the Government of his Order is to find out all sorts of means of rooting out the Hereticks Enemies of the See of Rome and to take away the Lives or Dominions of those Princes or Kings who are not under its obedience Of the Encrease and Power of the Jesuits THIS Society favoured by the Popes as wholly devoted to them did so much multiply and so fast that Father Ribadeneira a Jesuit having made a Catalogue of their Provinces Colleges and Religious Houses in the year 1608. to wit seventy years after the Foundation of their Order reckons 31 Provinces 21 Profest Houses 293 Colleges 33 Novitiates other Residential Houses 96. But since that time they are so much increased that there is no Religious Order so much dilated so abundantly favoured with Priviledges so Rich and so Powerful as theirs A Book in Folio would not be enough to give to the Publick the History of it I shall only say in general that they are spread all over the World and in those Countries where they have not the liberty to appear in their Jesuitical Habit they keep themselves there Incognito in great numbers and leave no stone unturned to compass their intreagues and ill designs All their Houses and Colleges are very stately and curiously built Pope Gregory the XIII gave them in Rome against the Orders of the Senate a whole Island or quarter of the Town where they pulled down all the Houses turned out all the Owners the Widows and the Orphans to build there a College The same Pope gave them 25 Tuns of Gold towards the raising of it They maintain there 500 Jesuits of all the parts of the World who are the chief Emissaries of the General and as so many Mastiff-dogs ready to be let loose at his pleasure upon those whom they call Hereticks King Louis the XIV was no less liberal towards this Order in his Kingdom where he caused to be built every where stately Palaces for them while Spain Germany Poland Italy and the other Popish Countries have suffered these Vulturs to gnaw their Entrails and become fat upon them Rodolphus Hospinianus a very grave and faithful Author hath left us four Books of the Jesuitical History He treats in the First of the Origin Name Habit and Rules of the Jesuits he handleth in the Second the Increase and Power of this Order in the Third he exposes to publick view the wicked Acts Frauds Impostures and Bloody Counsels of the Jesuits both in Portugal and in France the Conspiracies Troubles Seditions Parricides horrid and enormous Crimes which they have committed in England Scotland Bohemia Hungary Moscovy Poland c. Lastly His Fourth Book does very plainly represent their Doctrin of Killing and Deposing Kings and Princes their Equivocations and Contradictions I shall not spend time to relate them to my Reader here in a Country where their Artifices and Devilish Enterprises are so well known I will only set down a curious Piece related by the same Author in his Fourth Book which is their form of Consecrating and Blessing those Murtherers whom they have persuaded to lay Violent and Sacrilegious Hands on Kings Here is word for word the order of it Ceremonies of the Consecration Blessing and Sanctification of Regicides by the Jesuits extracted out of a Process Printed at Delphes by John Andrew HE who is so unhappy as to be persuaded by the Jesuits to assassinate either a King or a Prince is brought by them into a secret Chappel where they have prepared upon an Altar a great Dagger wrapped up in linnen Cloath together with an Agnus Dei. Drawing it out of the Sheath they besprinkle it with Holy Water and fasten to the Hilt several Consecrated Beads of Coral pronouncing this Indulgence That as many Blows as the Murtherer shall give with it to the Prince he shall deliver so many Souls from Purgatory After this Ceremony they put the Dagger into the Parricides Hand and recommend it to him in this sort Thou chosen Son of God take the Sword of Jephte the Sword of Sampson the Sword of David wherewith he did cut off the Head of Goliath the Sword of Gideon
and born in Lawful Marriage except the Natural Sons of Kings and Princes Amongst the Knights some have Grand Crosses who alone can pretend to the Dignity of Grand Master who is the Superior and Sovereign of Malta There are also Knights Servants taken from very good Families The Courage both of the one and the other does increase every day amongst the continual dangers of a Bloody War against the most formidable Empire of the Universe and they are the Bulwark of Christendom on that side against the Turks From the year 1099 to 1663 they have had sixty Grand Masters Of the Order of Templars THEY began in the year 1118 at Jerusalem Hugo of Paganis Geofrey of St. Omer and seven others whose Names are unknown to us Consecrated themselves to the Sevice of God after the manner of the Regular Canons and made their Profession in the Hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Balduinus II. King of Jerusalem lent them a House near the Temple of Solomon from which they had the name of Templars or Knights of the Temple In the mean while as they lived only by Alms the King the Prelates and Lords of that Kingdom gave them Estates some for a while and some for ever The Aim of this Institution was to defend the Pilgrims against the ill usages of the Infidels and to keep the ways free for those who would make a Journey to Jerusalem These Nine First Knights did admit none into their Society till in the year 1128 after a Celebration of a Council held at Troyes in Champagne Hugo of Paganis came to it with five of his Brethren and asked for a Rule Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux who was there present was appointed to draw them one and it was ordered that they should wear a white Habit and since viz. in the year 1146 Eugenius the III. added to it a red Cross on their Cloaks After that this Order grew for some while to a great Honour and Reputation and got so great Fortunes and Estates by their Valour that Mathew Paris assures their Riches were immense and that they had nine thousand regular Houses Such a flourishing Condition raised a mortal Envy in the Hearts of all the other Knights and Monks who could not bear to see them in that Greatness and Power Nay several Princes and Kings conceived Jealousie against them and above all others Pope Clement the V. This Pope fearing lest they might take from him his Papal Crown made use dexterously of the Covetous Humour of Philip le Bel King of France to persuade him to extirpate them out of his Kingdom This Prince having given his Word for the doing of it upon Condition of being invested with all their Estates in his own Dominions the Pope went about to persuade other Christian Princes to do the same Which succeeded so well that at one and the same time upon a signal given all these poor Knights not thinking of so Deplorable and Tragical an End were unmercifully murdered This Pope or rather this Monster of Cruelty to give some Colour to so Barbarous an Execution had them charged with several horrid Crimes and took care they should be published but never was able to prove any of them James of Morlai Gentleman of Burgundy Grand Master of the Templars was burnt alive at Paris with two of his Knights in the year 1313 and several others were publickly executed in other Provinces nor was it possible to make them confess the Crimes wherewith their Order was accused though they were offered their Lives if they would do it They persisted always saying they would not defile with so execrable Lies the Nobility and Glory of their Order Pope Clement the V. desirous to have the satisfaction to see burnt alive one of the Knights of that Order being then at Bourdeaux with Philip le Bel they were looking both of them out of a Window and the poor wretched Knight who was carried to Execution having spied them spake thus to them Being not permitted to appeal to another Tribunal for my defence you Clement the unmerciful Tyrant and you King Philip I cite you both within a year and a day before the just Tribunal of God there I shall expose the innocency of my Cause Accordingly the Pope and the King died both in the same year After the extirpation of the Templars they enriched themselves with their Spoils and the Estates which they possessed in the other Kingdoms were divided between the Knights of Rhodes who are now those of Malta and the Teutonicks Of the Knight-Order of Montjoye POPE Alexander the III. established this Order at Jerusalem and Confirmed it in the year 1180. under the Rule of St. Basil They wore a Red Cross and were Instituted for to go and fight the Infidels King Alphonsus the Wise called for them into Spain for to fight the Moors and having allowed them Revenues gave them the name of Knights of Mofrack but under the Reign of King Ferdinandus they were united to the Order of Knights of Calatrava Of the Order of Avis of Portugal ALphonsus the I. King of Portugal having Conquered in the year 1147 the Town of Evora from the Moors and ascribing this to a singular Favour of the Virgin Mary he established for the defence of that City Knights who signalized themselves under the Name of Brethren of St. Mary of Evora Some while after they had a Great Master who was Ferdinandus of Montereiro They received the Rules of Cisteaux and John Civita Abbot of that Order framed them some particular Constitutions in the year 1162. Pope Innocent the IV. approved in the year 1204. this Establishment which proved very advantagious to Christianity by the continual Victories which these Knights obtained over the Moors This Order had already the name of Avis from a Castle of that Name which Sanches the I. had given them in acknowledgment of the great Services they had done him upon all occasions They worâ— the white Habit of Cisteaux and their Arms were Gold with a Sinople Floree-Cross and two Sable Birds on the top in allusion to the word Avis which signifies Bird. In the year 1213 Rodrigues Garcia de Asa Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava with the consent of his Knights gave to the Order of Avis several Places which they did possess in Portugal Which Generosity did ingage them so far that for an eternal acknowledgment they desired a greater union with them and submitted willingly to the Order of Calatrava but some differences arising afterwards in the Wars of the Portuguese with the Castillans they refused obedience to it This hapned under John the Great of Portugal He was Natural Son to Juesticier Peter and Ascended the Throne in the year 1385. Of the Order of St. Lazarus THE Western Christians being Masters of the Holy Land established it and it was a distinct Order from the Templars Teutonicks and those of St. John of
Father who speaks to his Child Hear my Son the Precepts of thy Master and incline thy heart to the Admonitions of thy Father c. Chap. i. He speaks here of four sorts of Monks first of Coenobites who live in a Monastery under the same Rules and Abbot 2. Of Anachorets or Hermits 3. Of Sarabaites who were a sort of People following only their own Wills 4. Of certain Vagabond Monks who had no place of abode and declares that his Rule belongs to none but the Coenobites whom he exalteth above the rest Chap. ii He describes here the good Qualities which an Abbot ought to have who he saith in a Monastery doth represent the person of Jesus Christ Chap. iii. That in important Affairs the Abbot ought to call all his Monks to Council even the youngest because saith he God often reveals to them what is best And after having heard every ones opinion he ought to put in execution what he shall think best Chap. iv He treats here of the Instruments of Good Works which he reduceth to LXXII Precepts which are the most eminent Duties of Christian Life of which the first is to love God with all ones heart and the second to love our Neighbour as our self c. He saith that the Monastery is the proper place to put them in execution Chap. v. He commands Obedience without delay to their Superiors Chap. vi He commands here silence and giving a very bad interpretation to that Verse of the 38th Psalm Humiliatus sum silui à bonis saith that only for the love which one should bear to silence one ought sometimes to abstain from good and edifying Discourses Chap. vii He speaks here of Humility of which he assigns twelve degrees which he saith did compose that mysterious Ladder that appeared to the Patriach Jacob. The first degree of Humility according to him is to fear God and to think him always present The second Not to love to do his own Will The third To submit himself to his Superior in all Obedience for the love of God The fourth To suffer with patience all sorts of injuries for the love of God The fifth To discover all his most secret faults and sins to his Abbot The sixth That one ought to be content with the meanest things and the most abject employments The seventh To think meanest of himself The eighth To do nothing but what the common Rule of the Monastery and the example of the Ancients give them a president for The ninth To speak nothing unless being askt The tenth Not to laugh easily The eleventh Being obliged to speak to do it without laughter with gravity in few words and a low voice The twelfth A Monk ought not only to be humble in heart but also in behaviour and that in all places he ought to hang down his Head and his Eyes towards the ground He promiseth to him who shall have surmounted all these degrees of Humility to arrive at that perfect Charity which drives away fear but he does not see that there are some false steps which shews him to be no great Divine Chap. viii He appoints the hour when the Monks ought to rise in the Night to go to Church to wit at the eighth hour that is according to our way of reckoning two hours after Midnight Chap. ix He orders the Office and the number of Psalms which the Monks ought to sing in the Night during the Winter Chap. x. He orders the same Office for the Night in Summer Chap. xi and xii He settleth the Divine Office for Sunday-night Chap. xiii He appoints the Night Office for the days of the Week Chap. xiv He prescribes the Office for Holydays during Night Chap. xv In what time they ought to sing Alleluia Chap. xvi xvii and xviii He ordains the Office of the Church for the day and will have them every week sing through the Psalter Chap. xix That the Monks singing at Church ought to remember they are in the presence of God and of his Angels Chap. xx That they ought to accompany their Prayers with a profound and inward respect That the Common Prayers ought to be short and that they go out of the Church all together when the Superior gives the sign Chap. xxi If the Congregation is numerous it must be divided by tens with a Dean over each to be chosen from amongst the Brethren of the best life Chap. xxii After what manner the Monks ought to sleep to wit all in one place or divided into several rooms by tens or twenties with their Deans A Lamp must burn in the place where they sleep all night They ought to sleep cloathed with their Girdles on The youngest must not have their Beds near one another but be mingled with those of the Ancients Chap. xxiii If a Monk be rebellious disobedient proud or a murmurer after secret admonitions and publick reprehensions he ought to be excommunicated and if for all this he does not mend then to be corporally chastised Chap. xxiv That for light faults they ought to be excommunicated the Table that is to say they must eat alone and after the others have done Chap. xxv That for great faults they be excommunicated from the Table from the Prayers and all Assemblies Chap. xxvi That he who without the permission of his Abbot keeps company with excommunicated persons be himself excommunicated Chap. xxvii What care the Abbot ought to have of those who are excommunicated Chap. xxviii After any one has been mildly and sharply corrected and does not amend that then the whole Congregation pray for him after which if he persist obstinate that they expel him the Monastery Chap. xxix If he that hath been expelled returns and promises to amend that they shall receive him thrice after which he shall be admitted no more Chap. xxx That Children and those who understand not what Excommunication means be punished by fasting or be whipt Chap. xxxi He sets down the good Qualities which the Steward of the Monastery called by him the House of God ought to have Chap. xxxii The Abbot ought to commit the Habits and the Goods of the Monastery to certain Monks who shall look well after them and keep an Inventory of them Chap. xxxiii The Monks ought to possess nothing at all as their own in particular but every thing in common Chap. xxxiv All things ought to be distributed according to every ones necessities Chap. xxxv The Monks ought to serve weekly by turns in the Kitchin and at Table They ought during their week to wash the Feet of the others and on Saturday to clean all the Plates and the Linnen which served to wipe the Feet of their Brethren Chap. xxxvi Care above all things must be taken of the Monks that are sick There shall be for them an Apartment by it self with an Officer to serve them The use of the Bathes and of Flesh is permitted to them till they be well again Chap. xxxvii The
year 1313. Some are of opinion that Peter Damianus established this Religion a long time before Pope Celestin about the year 1078 and that the Habit of those Monks was of a Blue or Celestial Colour whence they were called Celestins They wear now a White Casock with a Patience a Scapulary a Hood and a Cowl all black They possess now in France about twenty Monasteries 'T is an usual expression in that Country for a great Coxcomb to call one a pleasant Celestin. Of the Order of the Olivetans JOhn Ptolomaeus Gentleman of Siena in Italy a Learned Lawyer desirous to give himself wholly to devotion retired to a ground of his own called Accona distant fifteen miles from the Town having drawn along with him two other persons who followed him in his retreat in the year 1313. Their Congregation increased in a little while and because they professed no written Rule and made no Vows guided only by the zeal they had for Jesus Christ they were accused before Pope John the XXII who held his Seat at Avignon as Innovators Enemies to Monastical Vows This Pope referred their Cause to the Bishop of Aresse who commanded them to follow the Rule of St. Benet This hapned in the year 1319. and to go Cloathed all in White viz. to wear a Casock a Scapulary and a long broad Cowl with large Sleeves He ordered besides this that their Congregation should be called by the name of St. Mary of Mount Olivet and that the Church of their Chief Monastery of Accona should bear the same name About that time John Ptolomaeus having proposed to himself St. Bernard Abbot of Clairvaux for a Pattern would be called of his name Bernardus He died of the Plague in the year 1348 and 't is unknown where his Body was laid His Religious are called yet to this day Olivetans They live in a Congregation and have perpetual Regular Abbots though their abode is but triennial in the same Monastery They have divided their Abbies into six Provinces which do elect by turns the General of the Order These Monks are so much disordered that several Popes to remove so great a Scandal had a mind to abolish them intirely as 't was done to the above-mentioned Humilies but their Protectors have been so powerful and so well paid that they have ever till now averted this Storm from their Heads Of some other Orders of St. Benet and Chiefly of the famous Congregation of St. Maur in France TO put an end to the Orders which follow the Rule of St. Benet I say that some are to be seen yet in the East as in the Valley of Josaphat and in the Indies who differ only in Cloaths The first wear a Hood and a Cowl of a readish Colour and after the use of Eastern Countries a long Beard The others to wit the Indians have a black short Casock with a white Scapulary and a white Cloak over it that reacheth to their Heels There are also many Reformations of the Order of St. Benet in Germany in Lorrain and in France but among others that of St. Maurus in France is very remarkable It was erected by Pope Gregory the XV. in the year 1621 upon the motion of Louis the XIII King of France Father Desiderius De la Cour native of Lorrain was the first who went about it very earnestly and the first Monastery where this Reform took place was that of the White Cloaks or Blanc Manteaux at Paris Pope Urban the VIII confirmed this Congregation in the year 1627. It increased so much in so short a time that one may reckon now two hundred Monasteries in France belonging to it They are divided into six Monastical Provinces each of which is governed by a Visitor They have a General besides who keeps two Assistants or Helpers and lives in the Abby of St. Germain des Prez at Paris The Abbots and Superiors of the whole Congregation meet together with their Deputies in a General Chapter every third year and there they make their Regulations which are joined with the Declarations upon their Rule and ought very strictly to be observed This Congregation would have spread its Branches yet farther if King Louis the XIV by a piece of Policy unwilling to see any Private Body to grow so strong had not put a stop to it He would not permit them to reform many other Monasteries which are yet very loose and corrupted and had rather to see them Secularized as 't was done lately to the Abbies of Enee and Savigni near Lions than to have them incorporated with these Reformed Monks They are extreamly Rich being very good Husbands and partly because they want Monks to fill their Monasteries The French Nobility being now a days Enemies to a lazy Life the meanest sort of people only sue for to be received amongst them This Congregation hath however produced some great men in this Age famous by their learned Works to wit D. Hugues Menard Lucas d' Achery John Mabillon Gabriel Gerberon but scarcely could they produce as many others of this kind amongst them The length of their Office at Church taking up the best part of their time is perhaps the cause of their ignorance The Jesuits are very troublesom to them because by the great power they have at Court they get to themselves several of their Abbies and Priories This is the reason why in some points one sees St. Ignatius of Loiola cutting with long Shears St. Benet's Purse I shall say no more of the Monastical Orders that follow the Rule of St. Benet only this That several other Monasteries of Benedictine Monks are to be seen here and there dispersed who are not reformed and do not live in a body of a Congregation but all of them lead so corrupted and wicked lives that they may be considered where-ever they are as the plague of all honesty and good manners CHAP. XIII Of the Orders of St. Hierom. 'T IS very certain that St. Hierom governed a long while the famous Monastery built at Bethlem by the devout Paula but it was by the good example of his life only not leaving any thing in Writing that might be serviceable after his death to the Monastical Government So that the Orders which bear in our days St. Hierom's Name are not to be called so for their following his Rule but because they have chosen this great Doctor for their Patron and Protector 'T is very true also that some time before he entred the Monastery of Paula he had retired himself to the most desert places of Syria to get more freedom from Worldly Affairs and to apply himself the better to Study and the Contemplation of Holy Things But then and afterwards he did it with a perfect liberty of Spirit without determination to any Place Exercise or Practâ—ce of Vertue by any Vow nor distinguished himself from others by the singularity of his Habit. Prosper Stellarius an Augustinian Monk who hath collected the Rules of the Founders
1616. The head of the Order being called General of the Regular Clarks of the Congregation of Somasks and of the Christian Doctrin in France They are Clothed with Black Cloth as the Priests and wear a Hat They have the most part of their Convents in Italy and in some places publick Colleges where they teach Youth as the Jesuits do Of the Order of the Jesuits IGnatius Loyola a Spaniard laid the Foundation of this Order about the year of oâ—â— Lord 1540. He was of a Fierce and Barbarous Temper and being but a Youth threatned to cut off a Limb from him who the least displeased him coming very often to Blows He never quitted this cruel and inhuman disposition and even inspired his Order with it He followed at first Military Employments but having received a Wound in his Thigh at the Siege of Pampelone he left the Wars and happening one day to read a Book full of Lies called by the Papists the Flowers of the Saints and amongst other things being in a fixed consideration of the high esteem Men had for being Founders of Orders he thought it would not be lost labor if he became also the Forger of one But as he was very Ignorant which must needs be a great obstruction to his design he resolved as stupid as he was to Study and with strength of Application acquired tolerable Knowledge He improved it at Salamanca and it was there that appearing publickly in an extravagant Habit and Preaching in the Streets without leave of the Bishop he was delivered to the Inquisition to examin his Doctrin But he was found very firm in all the Errors and Impieties of Popery and therefore let out of Prison and had in more Honour than before This gave him encouragement to go to Paris where he applied himself again to Study and was made Master of Arts. His Hypocrisy increasing more and more he betook himself to beg Alms from Door to Door and taught Youth for nothing getting by this means the esteem and love of the meanest sort of People Nay some Gentlemen drawn by his Example joyned with him and became his Companions and all together made a Vow to Renounce the World and to go to Jerusalem to Preach there to the Turks and draw them to the Errors of Popery But first They resolved to go to Rome and receive the Popes Blessing as also Priestly Ordination The Jesuits say that their Ignatius being near the City of Rome God the Father appeared to him visibly and desired his Son Jesus Christ who was loaden with an heavy Cross to take a special care both of him and of his Companions Christ promised him he would not fail and told Ignatius he would be favourable to him at Rome Ego vobis Romae propitius ero This made them to take the name of the Company of Jesus because the Eternal Father had given them they say for Companions to his Son who acknowledged them to be such The good disposition wherein they found Paul the III. at Rome made them to resolve not to lose time but to establish their their Society before they went to Jerusalem and they elected unanimously Igantius for their General After ten years of Generalship he made as if he should be glad to be dispensed with and quit it but being sweetly forced to a longer continuance in it he wrote his Book of Spiritual Exercises which some say he had taken out of the Abby of Montserrat where he made some abode at the beginning of his Conversion The Society increasing daily Ignatius undertook to explain further the form of his Institution and having brought it to certain Heads he had them approved by the Pope He died of a burning Fever in the year 1556 aged 65 years having founded almost an hundred Houses of his Order Some Jesuit Authors say he was very often tormented by Devils and that he boasted before his Death how much good he had done to the Church of Rome as also of having extreamly enriched his Society shewing further how heartily sorry he was to part from it in so Flourishing a Condition Of the Rule of the Jesuits THe most rigorous Statute of the Jesuits is that which forbids the publication of their Rule and Pope Paul the III. by a Bull of the year 1549 permitteth the General of the Jesuits to Excommunicate to put in Prison and also to employ the secular Power for chastising as he pleaseth all those of what quality or condition soever they be who shall dare to manifest their Constitutions to the Publick Why so great a precaution accompanied with so much severity but because saith Hospinian they are ashamed that one should know the base and filthy things which they practise secretly Omne enim quod honestum soitur publicari non timetur saith S. Augstin Nevertheless this Rule having been Printed at Lions in the year 1607 with the design to distribute Copies of it in their Colleges Novitiates and Profest-houses they could not take their Measures so well but some of them are fallen into secular Hands Prosper Stellarius Hospinian and others do relate it at length in their Works I might also have inserted it in mine was it not of too great a bulk Therefore I have chosen rather to give first an Idea of it in general and then to set down some principal Points which I have observed in the perusing of it As for the Idea in general I say that as Mahomet hath taken something of all sorts of Religions to make up his own in the same manner Ignatius Loyola and all his crew have made a Rapsody of all sorts of Monastical and Collegiate Rules to compose that of their Order It is for the most part filled with nothing but human Traditions Hypocrisies Idolatries and devilish inventions which are required therein as to run over all the World to endevour to draw not only the Infidels but all the Christians also if it be possible to their Idolatrous Worship the Sacrifice of the Mass the Worship of Saints c. To extend as much as in them lies the Dominions of Antichrist who is the Pope and to infect the whole Earth with the Venom of their perverse Doctrins This is the general design of their Institute And as for the Rules belonging to the internal direction of their Houses or Convents they are a great part of them Superstitious Impious or Silly Practices Nevertheless I must confess that the external Government of their Order for policy and cunning to compass their ends of heaping Riches and Power in the World hath not met yet with its like upon the Earth I shall relate here Commpendiously of their Rules only as much as is necessary to prove both the one and the other Some Rules of the Jesuits drawn from their Common Rules RUle 2. They ought to be present every day at the Sacrifice of the Mass to abuse the People with their Hypocrisy Rule 4. They
under the Rule of St. Francis and Cloathed as the Capucines except that their Clothes are longer and they have a Scapulary The Penitent Nuns of the Order of St. Francis in High Germany After having lived some while in their Monasteries they go into the Woods and live single or two together in a little House with a little Chapel after the manner of the ancient Hermits eating almost nothing else but Herbs and Roots They have a short gray coloured Gown girded with a Cord go Bare-footed or with Wooden-shoes The Nuns Sack-bearers were established in France by St. Louis King of France in the year 1261 at the instance of his Mother Blanca But both the Nuns and the Fryars of the same Order were suppressed before his Death They were Cloathed with Sacks and obliged to a strange odd sort of Life The Nuns Urbanistes under the Rule of St. Francis were instituted by Isabella Sister to St. Louis King of France with the Title of the Humility of our Lady She took her self the Religious Habit amongst them and was made a Saintess by Pope Leo the X. in the year 1521. The Nuns of St. Francis of Paula Two Spanish Women Mary and Francis of Lucena founded this Order in the year 1495 following the Rules of this Francis and except the black Vail on their Heads they wear an Habit like to that of the Fryars of the same Order The Nuns of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary were instituted by Francis Sales Bishop of Geneva in the year 1610 who writ Rules for them which were approved by the Popes and in his Life he could reckon above 30 Cloisters which followed his Institutions They did afterwards very much increase particulary in France They have black Cloathes and a little Silver Cross on their Breasts Of the Order of the Vrselines or Jesuitesses THIS is the Female Order of the Jesuits A young Italian Woman called Angela of Bressia of a mean Family published that hor deceased Sister appeared to her in a glorious State with several other holy Virgins who came down from Heaven to Visit her and a Voice was heard saying Angela thou shalt not dye before thou hast instituted a Nunnery of Virgins like these It was in all likelihood the Voice of the Jesuit because this Angela having declared her Vision to her Confessors who were Fathers of that Society they forgot nothing to perswade her to put in Execution what she was commanded from God And as Ignatius Loyola made a Vow before the Institution of his Order to go rambling to Jerusalem so did likewise this young Woman upon which she was struck stone Blind But this did not hinder her from going thither alone Bare-footed and living on Alms. And it was a Miracle indeed that she could find the way so well Being returned from Jerusalem to Venice by another Miracle she recovered her Sight and other new Visions coming one upon another to forward her design of founding an Order She went at last about it and found immediately 76 young Women ready to embrace her Institution This unanimous resolution of so many at once seemed to a Popish Author a very great Miracle though it was indeed the wise disposition of the Jesuits who had prepared them long before for it A College was then founded and richly endowed for them where they began to teach the Women according to their capacities as the Jesuits do the Men. Their Congregation was first approved in the year 1572 by Pope Gregory the XIII at the instance of the Cardinal Charles Borromeo Archbishop of Milan and of Paul Leon Bishop of Ferrara Upon this pattern Magdalen Lullier Lady of St. Beuve inspired by the Jesuits founded in the year 1611 the Urselines in France and Pope Paul the V. approved their Establishment and Constitutions Their first Monastery there is that of Paris from whence they have spread themselves through the whole Kingdom where they instruct the young Girls and take Boarders They are called Urselines from a holy Virgin called Ursula and Daughter they say to a King of great Britain who suffered Martyrdom according to some Authors near Colen on the Rhine with Eleven thousand young Ladies who went to wait on her I shall not stand to reharse the History of it which seems very fabulous and is variouly related The Urselines have also several Convents in Suitsserland Germany and elsewhere In some places they are confined to their Cloisters and in others they have liberty to go abroad and keep every where an intimate familiarity with the Jesuits Of the Order of the ten Virtues or Delights of the Virgin Mary called also of the Annunciade JEAN Queen of France of Valois Daughter of Louis the XI and Spouse of Louis the XII King of France having been repudiated left the Court full of discontent and retired herself in the Dutchy of Berry withdrawing all her thoughts from the World which had proved so unfaithful to her The direction of her Conscience being in the hands of two Fathers Cordeliers who were her Confessors they were not wanting to make use of her good Dispositions endeavouring to persuade her that the greatest honour which she might render to God was to build some Convents of Nuns of their Order like that of the Ave Maria at Paris Founded by Queen Charllotte of Savoy her Mother But this Princess either by a greatness of Soul which she had from her Birth or to get more reputation in the World would not hearken to their proposal for the propagation of an Order already established but undertook to found a new one of her own invention pretending for it a Revelation manifested to her by a Special Voice of the Virgin Mary The Fathers Gilbert and Nicolas her Confessors seeing no hopes for their Order took at last upon themselves to help the Princess in her new design and after to go and look out four Women for her upon Condition that they should â—e likewise their Confessors and Directors They had the good luck to bring a great number of young Ladies of the best Families of Bourges and by order of the Queen they composed a Rule for them the chiefest business whereof was to honour with a great many Beads and Rosaries the ten principal Virtues or Delights of the Virgin Mary The first of these Delights and Comforts was when the Angel Gabriel annunciated to her the Mystery of the Incarnation for which these Nuns took also the name of the Annunciation The second of these Delights was when she saw her Son Jesus brought into the World The third when the Wise Men came with Presents to worship him The fourth when she found the Child Jesus Qestioning the Doctors in the Temple I shall not stand to relate the rest which any one may easily imagin Now for what belongs to our Order of Nuns the business was to get the Confirmation of it in the Court of Rome They met there with much coldness on the side of Pope Alexander
pestiferous Dragons were by him vanquished and supplanted This is the Notion which this Author gives us of that Order which manifestly shews to what Merit and Honour these deluded People think they arrive by the Persecution which they raise against the true defenders of the Gospel Time will come saith Christ when those who Persecute you shall think they do great Service to God As for the Secular Orders of Knights having not Treated of them in this Book it would be superfluous to give here the Character of them I only say that most of these Orders being Instituted to establish a true Submission of the Subjects to their Princes or a perfect Friendship amongst equals or lastly to serve for Badges of Nobility and honour to distinguish Illustrious and brave Men they cannot but produce very good effects in those Kingdoms where they are established and Crowned Heads will always do well to make them Glorious by becoming themselves the Heads of them A CONCLUSION OF THE Whole WORK NO Body will deny but it is very advantagious to retire now and then into Solitude far from the noise and dissturbances of the World there to examine more at leisure and with a composed mind the State of his own Conscience and the Ways of Salvation to the end that one may dispose himself to discharge better afterwards his great Duties towards God and to order more charitably his Employments and Conversation amongst men A Retirement made for such good Ends and Purposes cannot but be very good and commendable and in this sense ought to be understood all the Elogies which the Holy Doctors and First Fathers of the Church have given to Solitude Christ himself hath commended the same by his own Example when he retired into desert places upon the Mountains with his Disciples where he taught them to pray and instructed them in all the duties of the Gospel He gave them in the Solitude those Precepts which they were to practise in the Cities insomuch that all these Retirements were only ordered for to converse better afterwards in the World The Romanists who commonly take things very materially without well examining what goes before and what after were not wanting to pronounce that because Christ did practise Retirement this same Retirement considered absolutely in it self without reference to the end for which it was chiefly intended was to be looked upon as the most perfect State in which a Christian may live not observing that it was only to be considered as an excellent means for better ordering civil Life Upon this mistaken Principle are grounded all the the Monastical Orders of the Church of Rome and the Monks are called by a very improper Emphasis Religious Men which is as much as to say perfect Christians Would to God they were so indeed or at least that they did come something near to the simplicity and honesty of Life of the most part of the first Monks who inhabited in the Third and Fourth Ages in the Deserts of Palestina and Thebaide they in this case should be only guilty of a little too much Superstition which the uprighness of their Hearts might render excusable both before God and before Man But the Monks of our times have brought things to such a point of Abomination by their Hypocrisies Cheats perfidious and infamous Practices that happy a thousand times those Kingdoms and People are who see themselves freed from such a Brood of Vipers who tear in pieces the very Bowels of those who cherish them in their Bosoms Nevertheless I know very well that these wretched persons well stocked with impudence are very eager in taxing the Protestants with being declared Enemies to those very Christian Virtues Poverty Chastity and Obedience endeavouring by that means to render them more odious to those of their own Party But in this they are very unjust because there is never a good Protestant but will acknowledge that voluntary Poverty for the love of God is a great Treasure to a Christian who knows how to make a good use of it that Chastity is a Virtue beloved both of God and of Angels and that Obedience to lawful Superiours Spiritual and Temporal is a necessary Virtue to maintain that good order of things which God hath established here on Earth All the disference between a Papist and a Protestant in this Point is that the first believeth that he can make bold with God's Gifts dispose of them after his own Will and make a Vow before-hand to observe what is not in his own power to perform unless it be given him from above exposing himself thereby to an evident danger of becoming perjured and Sacrilegious in not performing his solemn Oath and Promises The other on the contrary hath a just and respectful sentiment of Gods Grace and his Holy Gifts which being meerly free are above our natural reach and therefore must be fervently prayed for and when given humbly received but not disposed of before-hand as being not sure if God will be pleased to bestow them upon us It is then the Vow that is found fault with as Bold and Rash and not the Virtues which are Heavenly and Holy This Declaration I hope will be enough fore the present to defeat all these odious Calumnies laid so unjustly by Popish Monks and Priests at the Protestants doors viz. that they hate Retirement Christian Poverty Chastity and Obedience Having done with this I come to another Observation concerning the beginning of Monastical Orders In the first page of this History where I say that it is generally agreed that Monastical Institutions did begin towards the middle of the third Age I dicourse only to those who have truly unpartially and with unprejudiced mind inquired into these matters I know very well that some Popish Writers blinded by a false Zeal for Monkery have been so hot in pushing it up as to make Monks of almost all the Ancient Fathers and the Primitive Christians of the Holy Apostles and the Blessed Jesus him St. John the Baptist Elias and the Sons of the Prophets Noah in the Ark and a long time before him Enos Nay they go back beyond the World and say that God before the Creation of the Universe was a Monk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone As for this last I make no disficulty to call it a down right Impiety and Profaneness to raise such ridiculous comparison between their filthy Monks and Almighty God And for Enos the Son of Seth the only ground they have to assert that he was a Monk is because it s said in Scripture that he begun to call upon the name of the Lord. If to begin to call in a special manner upon the name of the Lord is as they would have it to be a Monk to be sure our first Reformers who departing from Idolatrous Popery called in an undefiled manner upon the name of the Lord must have also their Lot amongst the Monks Noah they say and all those who entred the Ark
to the Pope and be Confirmed by him but it is Just that for greater Spiritual Labours the Soul should receive a more ample Reward Thus does this Rule end dedicated to Saint Bridget by Christ himself I have extracted it from Hospinian and even for fear of being too long I have left out several things which would seem very ridiculous One may sufficiently see by what I have here related how blind the â—gnorance of those Times was This Order notwithstanding the fair Promises which Christ if we will believe Popish Lies made of heaping Blessings upon the Kingdoms Provinces Cities and Persons who should Found such Monasteries did not increase in that measure which this Bridget did hope for some few only were seen to start up here and there in Sweedland and some few others were built in England the first whereof was at Richmond in the year 1414. Of the Order of Guastalla THAT my Reader may understand better in what excess of misery these Monkish Orders composed both of Men and Women do end at last I have reserved for this place the Order of Guastalla It was Instituted in the year 1537 at Mantoua in Italy by a Countess called Guastalla at the instigation of Brother Baptista of Cremona a Dominican Fryar and was made up of Monks and Nuns who to overcome Fleshly Lusts did lay together a Monk with a Nun in one and the same Bed putting a big Wooden Cross between both which as they gave out had the Virtue to quench Rebellious Concupiscence But this Cross being but a very low Wall of Partition and several scandalous disorders and works of Darkness arising from this foolish Institution this infamous Order came to an end at last being destroyed all over Italy A TREATISE OF Military Orders Regular HAVING treated of Monastical Orders I thought I could not well forbear from saying something of those Military Orders who are under Religious Rules and Vows setting aside the others which for distinction from these are called Secular as is the Noble Order of the Garter in England that of St. Michael in France of the Annunciade in Savoy of the Golden Fleece in Spain and others who do not properly belong to Monastical History The most Ancient and also the most Famous of the Military Orders Regular is that of St. John of Jerusalem which went likewise formerly under the name of Rhodes and now under that of Malta Of the Order of Knights of St. John of Jerusalem alias of Rhodes now of Malta THIS Order was a very small thing in its beginning Some Merchants of the City of Melphi in the Kingdom of Naples in Italy who Traded into the East got permission from the Calif of Egypt to build for them and for those of their Nation who came in Pilgrimage into Palestina a House at Jerusalem paying for it a yearly Tribute Some while after they built also two Churches that of the Virgin Mary and that of St. Mary Magdalen the first for the Men and the other for the Women who went thither a Pilgrimaging This design encouraged some others to do the like who Founded likewise a Church and an Hospital in which care was taken of the Sick and of those who went to visit the Holy Places In the year of our Lord 1099 the Christians under the conduct of brave Godfrey of Bullen made themselves Masters of Jerusalem and the Hospitalers Brothers of St. John did not a little help towards it For observing that the Turks began to lose ground and to yield to the vigorous attack of the Besiegers they fell unawares on their Reer and with the help of all the other Christians of the Town they forced the Guards and opened the Gates of the City to the Besiegers One Gerard Tune was then their Director or Grand Master who having also signalized himself in the great fight at Ascalon King Godfrey gave for a Reward to the Hospitalers great Estates and Possessions to put them thereby in a condition to exercise Hospitality and resist the Barbarians that should osfer any injury to Pilgrims on the Highways King Baldwin Successor to Godfrey loved and favoured them mightily and it was under his Reign in the year 1104 that they took the Religious Habit to wit a black Casock and over it on the left Side a white Cross with eight Spikes obliging themselves by Vow to receive treat and defend Pilgrims and also to maintain with force of Arms the Christian Religion in their Country They followed St. Austin's Rule except in the Cononical Office being obliged instead of it to recite every day a certain number of Pater Nosters Gerard Tune added to it likewise some particular Constitutions About the year 1118 the Ruin of the Christian Affairs in the East forced the Hospitalers to leave Jerusalem and after the surrender of this City they retired themselves to Margat and thence to Aeri which they defended with great valour and followed John of Lusignan who gave them in his Kingdom of Cyprus Limisson where they staid till the year 1310. And in that very year they â—ook Rhodes under the Command of their Great Master Fâ—ulques of Villaret and the following year they defended it against an Army of Saracins with the assistance of Ame the IV. Earl of Savoy The Hospitalers took from hence the name of Knights of Rhodes but were chased since from thence by Solyman who took it from them in the year 1522 aâ—ter a brave Defence Rome offered iâ—s Bosom for their retreat and Pope Adrian the VI. gave to that Order the City of Viterbo and six years after the Emperor invited them to take possession of the Island of Malta in the Adriatick Sea to cover his Kingdom of Sicily from an Invasion They defended valiantly this lâ—ttle Island against the Turks under the Command of their Grand Master John de la Valette Parison These Infidels after the loss of four Months time of 78000 Cannon Shots of 15000 Soldiers and 8000 Seamen retired with great Confusion Both the Town and the Island have been since very strongly fortified The Order was composed of eight different Nations but since the separation of the English from the Church of home there are only seven The first is that of Provence the Head of which is Great Commander of that Religion The second is that of Auvergne and its Chief is Mareschal of the Order France is the third whose Chief is the Grand Hospitaler The fourth is Italy the Head of which is Admiral The fifth of Arragon hath the Charge of Great Conservator Germany is the sixth and hath that of Great Bayliff of the Order The seventh is Castiglia the Head whereof iâ— Great Chancellor England was formerlv the sixth and the Chief of it was Great Turcopolier of the Religion that is Colonel of the Horse Whosoever desires to be received into that Order ought to prove his Nobility for four Generations as well by his Mothers side as his Fathers to be twenty years old