iealousies by their insight into the Subiects affection raise commotions and discord bringing into contempte the very person of the Prince Whence we must cōclude that the interest of State doth not comport that any Prince should confesse himselfe much lesse that he shold permit any of his Confidents Friendes Secretaries Counsellors or other his cheefe Ministers to confesse themselues to persons that attend so diligently to spy outmatters of State and to serue them selues of this means to insinuate into the fauour of Princes since there is this day no want of Religious persons men both for life and learning to be regarded equally with the Iesuites whome in this kinde they may employ who attend nothing els but the gouernment of soules and of their Monasteries Thirdly which is a greater discouery then yet wee haue made or shall make heereafter ye are to know that there are found amongest them foure sorts of Iesuites The first consistes of certaine secular people of both sexes adioyned to their society who liue vnder a certaine obedience which themselues call a Blinde Obedience squaring all their particular actions by the Iesuites counsell resigning themselues most readily in all thinges to be commanded by thē and these for the most part are Gentlemen or Gentlewomen the wealthyest Widdowes or the richest Cittizens or Marchantes from all whome as from fructiferous plants the Iesuites gather euery yeare a copious haruest of gold siluer Of this kinde are those women who in Italy call themselues Chettine who are induced by the Iesuites to forsake the world while in the meane time they get their pearls apparrell ornaments furniture of houses and finally very great possessions The second sort is of men alone but those as well Priests as Lay-men yet such as liue a seculare life and such as oft-times by the mediation of the Iesuites obtaine Pensions Church-liuings Abbeyes and other reuennews but these make a vowe to receiue a habite of the society at the pleasure of the Father Generall and therfore they are called Iesuits in Voto and by the labors of these men the Iesuites wondrously auaile themselues in the fabricke of their Monarchy For they maintaine in all kingdoms and Prouinces in al courts of Princes and Pallaces of great men such of these as shall serue them in a kind which I shall declare vnto you in the seauenth point of this discourse The third sort of Iesuits are those who remain in Monasteries and these are either Priests Clerkes or Conuerts who because at the first they came not from that profession may at the pleasure of the Father General be depriued of it although of themselues they haue no power to leaue it And these beeing such as haue no Office of importance for the most part doe simply obey in any thing that their Superiors command The fourth sort is of Politicke Iesuites through whose handes passeth the whole gouernment of religion and these are they who being tempted by the diuel with the same temptation that Christ had in the Gospell Haec omnia tibi dabo haue accepted the bargaine and therfore labour to reduce their society to an absolute Monarchy and to place the head thereof at Rome where all the principal affairs of the Christian world meete to gether There resides the head of these Politicians which is their Generall with a great number of others of the same profession who being first informed from their Spies of all such waighty important businesse as are to be treated in the Court of Rome hauing first among themselues agreed of such ends as for their own interest they desire each one takes his office to go euery day their circuit throgh the Courts of Cardinals Ambassadours and Prelates with whome cunningly they insinuat their discourse of such businesse as is then in hand or shortly to be handled representing it to them after what manner they please and in the same shape that by reflection from theyr owne ends themselues doe apprehend it ofttimes changing the aspect of the busines and shewing blacke for white And because the first interpretations made especially by religious mē are wont to make a notable impression in themind of him that heares them hence it proceedes that many times most important businesse treated by the Ambassadors of Princes and other graue persons of the Roman court haue not atained that successe which Princes expected because the Iesuites had praeoccupated theyr minds with theyr oblique relations effecting that those Ambassadors or other Agents should haue but smal credit with them And the same artifice that they vse with the Prelates of Rome they vse also with other Princes either by themselues or by the meanes of their Pensionary Iesuites out of Rome so that wee may conclude that the greaterpart of businesse thoroughout the Christian World dooth passe through the Iesuites handes and those onely take effect against which they make no opposition Most stupendious and impenetrable is the Art that in this kind they vse which though it cannot by mee be perfectly described yet may it liuely bee descryed by any Prince who will but daigne to read this little touch that I giue of thē because hee will presently reflect vpon what thinges haue past and as he shall vnderstād the truth of my discourse calling to mind with what art things haue beene handled he will discouer more of that which will seeme strange maruellous vnto him For not beeing content with this their close Artifice by which they thrust thēselus into the affayres of the World with perswasion that it is the onely meanes to archieue that Monarchall Iurisdiction at which they aime they made supplication to Pope Gregory the thirteenth That for the time to come he wold publiquely fauour theyr proiect and representing it to him vnder the publique good of the church they required that hee would commaund all his Legates and Apostolical Nuncios to take to them euery one for his companion and confident some Iesuite by whose counsell he should be gouerned in all his actions Fourthly by these cunning carriages and their insight into State busines the cheefe Iesuites haue gotten the loue of manie Princes as well Temporall as Spirituall which Princes they do perswade that they haue saide and done many things for their good and hereupon haue followed two waighty inconueniences First that abusing the friendship and goodnesse of those Princes they haue not cared to distaste many priuate but otherwise rich Noble Families vsurping the wealth of widdowes and leauing their family in extreame misery alluring to their Religion and to frequent their Schooles the most noble spirits who if haply they shall fall out to bee vnable and vnfitte for their purpose vnder some honest pretext they license them from their society but withall lay hold of their estates of which their society will needs be inuested heyres In the mean time absolutely excluding the poore from their schooles directly against the orders of the fore-named Father Ignatius and
with strange dexterity and wondrous iugling they vtterly ruine those designes to vvhich they had giuen a beginning The league of Fraunce treated and concluded by them not long after they abandoned when they saw things prosper on the Kings side and England so often promised by them to the Spaniardes yet in such manner perfourmed so confirmes this my Discourse that there needs no farther proofe Tenthly from what hath beene already sayde it necessarily followes that the Iesuites haue no good intention towardes anie Prince what euer eyther temporall or spirituall but onely serue them so farre as they may serue theyr owne commodity Nay it followeth yet further that no Prince much lesse any vnder Prelates can make the like vse of them because they shew themselues at the verie same time equally affected to all making them selues French with French men Spaniards with Spaniardes and so with all other according as the occasion requires frō which they do intend to extract their profite They haue no regard of the preiudice of one more then of another and therefore those enterprizes in which they haue intermedled haue seldome times succeeded well beecause they haue no purpose to serue further then their owne interest dictates to them And in this the Artifice which they vse is most notorious some of them faining themselues to be partiall to the crown of France others to Spaine others to the Emperour and some to other Princes of whom they desire to bee fauoured And if any of these Princes please to make vse of some Iesuite whom he holdes for his confident friend hee immediately writes to the Father Generall the businesse which hee hath to treate and expects his answere together with order what hee shall doe and conformable to that Commission he rules himselfe neuer regarding whether that Order be conformable to the intention of the Prince who commits the care of that businesse to him but if the society be serued he takes little care what seruice hee doeth vnto the Prince Besides this because the Iesuites vnderstande the interest of all Princes and are most knowing in all thinges daylie treated in secret Counselles those who pretend to hold with France propound to the King and his principall Ministers certaine conditions of State and important considerations which are sent to them from their Politicke Fathers at Rome And those that pretend to hold with the Crowne of Spaine doe iust the same with them and so with the rest From which course of theirs there ariseth such a diffidence in the hearts of Christian Princes that none giue credit to other which is a maine preiudice to the publike peace and vniuersall welfare of Christendome the which diffidence of theirs is that which makes it so difficult a thing to conclude a league against the common enemy precious peace to be of so little valewe a mongst Princes Furthermore vvith these artificious deuices they haue so opened the eyes of the world and so sharpened mens wittes in matter of State that this day to the notable preiudice of the holye Church they attend to nothing els but matter of policie and poyse all their actions in that ballance But to the end that these Iesuiticall stratagems may yet appeare more plainly I cannot here conceale the meanes by which they in ueigle Princes to their party There are some yeares nowe past since one of these Fathers called father Parsons the Assistant of England wrote a booke against the succession of the King of Scotland to the Crowne of England And another Father called Crittonius with some others of the same order in a Book which they wrote defended the Title of the King of Scotland opposing the opinion of Father Parsons and faining to be at discord amongst themselues although all this was indeede cunningly done and by the command of their Father Generall onely for this purpose that whosoeuer shold succeede in the Kingdome of England they might haue an excellent Argument to worke in him a great good opinion of their Society and to extract their own ends from him A faire example to shew vs that Princes are the obiects of all Iesuiticall actions and determinations and by consequence to make good their own saying That their Societie is a Grand Monarchy Againe that the trueth of this may appeare that the Iesuites haue no regard whether they please or displease any Prince where it toucheth vppon their owne commoditie although the experience of infinite things past maketh it as cleare as the Sun it selfe yet the particular which I shal here subioyn will render it euerie way most euident There is no person in the Worlde whom they are more bounde to serue and obey then the Byshoppe of Rome not only for many other reasons but especialy because they make a particular vowe to obey him Yet when Pius Quintus went about to reforme some of these Fathers reducing them vnto the performance of theyr dutie in the Quire they would not obey him esteeming that a notorious preiudice to their society and those fewe of them who yeelded themselues to the Popes pleasure accepting that profession were alwayes afterwardes in mockery called by their fellowes Quintini nor could euer any of them get the least preferment among them In the same kinde they opposed glorious Saint Charles Arch-byshoppe of Millain who as Legate alatere to his Holynesse endeauoured to reduce them to a Religious Discipline But what should I speake of these since they obey not the Sacred Cannons them-selues but agaynst their Decrees make Merchandize of Pearles Rubies and Diamondes the which they bring from the Indies and there is an opinion that the greatest part of precious Stones which are solde in Venice belong to the Iesuits The ground of which opinion hath beene receiued from their owne brokers whom they haue emploied in the sale of them But that they are no faithfull seruants vnto the Byshoppe of Rome those Fathers knowe well who for defaulte of theyr seruice were called by processe to Rome I neyther will nor can name them nor will I wade farther into this matter as wel that I may not bee compelled to speake of some Prince whom my Discourse will not very well please my selfe desiring to do seruice to all and to offend none as beecause I intend not here to make an inuectiue against the Iesuites but onely to giue a shorte and plaine draught of theyr courses and customes For as many times we behold one afflicted with some greeuous infirmitie sending forth such lamentable cryes as reach heauen it selfe and euery one perceyues that the man is terribly indisposed but no man is able to discerne the originall cause of his euill so the whole worlde complaines of the Iesuites some for beeing persecuted others for being treacherously serued by them but the mischiefe still remaines among vs. Nor is the cause therof easily discouered which is nothing else but a prodigeous and immense desire which they haue to encrease their owne power in respect whereof they
Patrimony of Christ And here I had need of the subtilty of Aristotle to discerne and the Eloquence of Cicero to expres those maruellous meanes A thing which for the nouelty of it to many seemeth incredulous by which these Fathers still gaine encrease to their society But it shall bee sufficient for me to point out only some few things leauing a large roome for other mens iudgements to raise vp a forme of what Idea themselues shall think fittest Yet I shall not omit to propound som few heads with which I intend to serue the Reader for the ground of his discourse And first these Fathers the Iesuites thoght it was not sufficient to promote their society to that pitch of greatnesse to the which they aspired onely by teaching preaching or administring the most holy Sacraments with other like religious exercises because though from the beginning as I said they were kindly imbraced by many people yet in processe of time they perceiued that either for ill satisfaction or some other occasion what euer it was the affection of many grewe colde towards them and therfore doubting lest their growth should end with their infancy they inuented two other meanes to enlarge their greatnesse The first was to worke in the minds of Princes consequently of as manic others as they could a base opinion of all other Religious Societies discouering their imperfections and after a cunning manner from others depressions raising theyr owne greatnesse and by this meanes they impatronized themselues of many Monasteries Abbeyes and other maine possessions depriuing those Religious persons that first enioyed them both of them and of all that belonged to them The second means was to thrust themselues into affayres of State gayning interest with the greatest part of Christian Princes and that with as subtle artificious a deuice as euer yet the worlde brought forth into which as it is very hard to penetrate so it is almost impossible sufficiently to explaine it There resides continually in Rome the Father Generall to whom all the rest render most exact obedience and there is choyce made of some other Fathers who from the Assistaunce they alwayes giue him are called his Assistants and there is one at least of euery nation who from that Nation takes his name Hence one is styled the Assistant of France a seeond of Spaine a third of Italy a fourth of England a fiâ—t of Austria so of all other Prouinces Kingdomes euery one of which hath it assigned to him as his particular office to informe the Father Generall of all accidents of State which occur in that Prouince or Kingdome of which he is Assistant And this Office he perfourmes by the meanes of his Correspondents who reside in the Principall Cities of that Prouince orkingdom who with all industry first informe themselues of the State the Quality Nature Inclination and Intention of Princes and by euery Currier aduertise the Assistants of such accidents as are newly discouered And these againe communicate all vnto the Father Generall who meeting in Councell with all his AssistaÌ„ts they make an Anatomy as it were of the whole worlde conferring the interest and desseigns of all christian Princes Heere they consult of al fresh intelligences receiued from their Correspondents and curiously examining them and conferring them togither at last they conclude to fauour the affaires of one Prince to depresse the designes of another as shal be most requisite for their interest and profit And as those who are standers by at some game more easily discerne the stroake then those that giue it so these Iesuits hauing in one view the interest of all princes know very wel how to obserue the condition of place and time how to apply the true meanes of aduancing the affayres of that Prince from whome they know they shal draw most water to their owne Mils Howeuer this is a thing simply euill that religious men should so much intermingle with matters of State it being their dutie rather to attend the sauing of their owne and other mens soules being for that end onely retired from the world but by this meanes they are more entangled then the very seculare persons themselues for many most pernitious consequences we shall find this their course most wicked and worthy of a speedy potent remedy For first these Iesuits are Confessors to the greatest part of the Nobilitie thoroughout all Romaine Catholike estates Nay the better to attend them they will not admit poore men or poore women to their Confessions but rather aime to be Confessors to the Princes themselues So that by this course it is easie for them to penetrate euery designe euery resolution and inclination aswell of Princes as of Subiects of all which they sodainly informe the Father Generall or his Assistantes in Rome Now any man that hath the lest measure of vnderstanding may easily perceiue what a preiudice they bring to Princes by this deuice when onely their owne interest stirres them vp to that to which as to their last end they direct all their endeuour Secondly whereas secrecy is a proper and vnseparable Accident which so accompanieth the preseruation of a State that without it the ruine of a State must needes follow Therefore all Princes are most rigorous against those who discouer theyr secrets punishing them as the enemies both of them and their Countrey And as on the other side to vnderstand the designes of other Princes makes a man more cautelous and more able to discerne his owne estate and therefore they vse to spend no small sum of money in the maintainance of Ambassadors Intelligencers yet are oftentimes deceiued too in their relations But the Iesuites that is their Father Generall and his AssistaÌ„ts as well by the Confessions and Consultations which their Correspondents doe make residing in all chiefe Citties of the Christian worlde as by meanes of their other Adherents of whom we shall Discourse hereafter are most sincerely and punctually aduertised of all determinations that are concluded in the most secret Councelles so that they better know almost all the power possessions expences and designes of Princes then the Princes themselues that without any other expense then the cariage of letters the which notwithstanding in Rome alone as the Masters of the Posts relate to vs arriseth to sixty seuenty eighty and ofte to an hundered Crownes of Gold for one Currier So that they knowing so exactly the affairs of al Princes do not onely diminish their credit among themselues but wound their reputation both with other Princes with their own subiects depressing or aduancing their State at their pleasure and that so much the easier because by the same way of Confessions and Consultations they enter into the very secrets of the peoples soules knowing who stands well affected to the Prince who rests distasted so that by these relations which they haue of State-affaires they may easily sowe discord among Princes occasion a thousand
esteeme in nothing to distast any mā to deceiue Princes to oppresse the poore to extort from Widdowes their estates to ruinate most noble Kingdomes nay many times by their intermingling with alimportant businesse to cause iealousies and despight among Christian Princes Now as there woulde follow a great inconuenience if that part which were last formed by Nature as an instrument to serue the rest that are more noble should attract vnto it selfe all the purest blood and vitall spirites because this were the way vtterly to dissolue the whole So it is as inconuenient that the religion of the Iesuites planted into the bodye of the holye Church as an instrument for the conuersion of Heretickes and the reduction of sinners to Repentance should bring within theyr owne power all the most waighty and important affayres of Princes Prelates and extracting from them the verie life and spirit of their interest should conuert them vnto their owne commoditie Because from hence both priuate and publike peace is disturbed manie deprest which were worthy to bee exalted and many exalted which were worthy to bee deprest with a thousand other inconueniences that would follow vpon it I could adduce many Reasons taken from experience it selfe to demonstrate what an ingordgious ambition the Iesuites haue to encrease their greatnes but it shall heere suffice to make it knowne from Father Parsons owne words recorded in a Booke of his composed in the English tongue and intituled The Reformation of England Where hauing first blamed Cardinall Poole and hauing also obserued many wantes and imperfections in the Councell of Trent at length hee concludes That when England should returne to the Romish Catholike Fayth he would reduce it to the forme and state of the Primitiue Church making common all Ecclesiastical goodes and assigning the charge of them vnto seauen Sauij or Wise men which should bee Iesuites and who should make distribution of goods at their pleasure Nor is it his will nay he forbiddes it vnder a greeuous penaltie that any religious person of what order soeuer should return into England without their License resoluing that none should enter there but those who should bee maintained by Almes But as it ofte falls out that selfeloue so blinds the wisest man that hee beecomes the vnwisest it is most ridiculous which the same Father subioynes in that place When England sayth hee shal once bee reduced to the true Faith it will not bee conuenient that the Pope at the least for fiue yeares space should looke to receyue any fruite from the Ecclesiasticall Benefices of this Kingdome but remit all into the hands of those seuen Sauij who shoulde dispense them as they conceiued best for the good of the Church This being his designe that the first fiue yeares being past by some other inuention of which they are verie full they woulde re-confirme the same priuiledge for fiue yeares more and so onward till they had vtterly excluded his Holynesse from England Now who seeth not heere as in a Table the Couetousnesse and the Ambition of the Iesuites naturally described together with the desire they haue to make themselues Monarches And who seeth not with what cunning they endeauor to promote their own interest procuring it eyther from others good or ill What should I say more of them In the time of Gregory the thirteenth did they not make it their request that they might bee inuested of all the Parish Churches in Rome That they might there lay a foundation of their Monarchy And that which they could not get in Rome haue they not finally obtained in England where not long since they haue chosen an Arch priest one of the Iesuites in Voto who in sted of protecting the Clergy like a rauening Wolfe persecutes all such Priestes as are not dependent vppon the lesuites driuing them to termes of desperation and depriuing them vnder a great penaltie of mutuall communication so that by this time almost all the English Romish Clergy are Iesuites in Voto nor do they accept any into their Colledges who hath not past his worde to become a Iesuite so that when that kingdome shall returne to the Auncient Faith England will bee like to giue a beginning to an absolute Iesuiticall Monarchy because al the Ecclesiastical reuennews all the Abbeyes Benefices Bishopprickes Archpriestships other dignities shall be conferred only by the Iesuites I here let passe manie things as the pretentions which they make concerning other mens estates howe iealous they are of their welfare and desirous of their prosperitie as the fauour which they endeauour to gaine from Princes by making them beleeue that their subiectes are most deuote to theyr religion and consequently that they are able to make them well affected to the person of theyr Prince Such euident thinges as these I leaue for euery one to obserue and with four brief considerations I will conclude this present Discourse First that men of such high spirit and such reaching designes are alwayes louers of noueltie euer searching for it and begetting it because without some new raised motions it is impossible they should attaine their ends And therefore the Iesuits cannot be helpfull to anie Prince that eyther loues peace or the conseruation of his own estate since they are more likely to be the cause of much trouble and commotion nay haply to put in compromize his whole state if he fauor not their party or bee not partially gouernd by their counsell Secondly if these who haue not temporall iurisdiction are able to cause such great and so prodigious disturbance in the World what thinke you would they doe if one of them should by chance be created Pope First hee would stuffe the Consistory with Iesuites by that meanes perpetuate the Popedome to them and then directing themselues by their insight and interest of State and hauing the Arme and power of the Pope they would be enabled to put in danger the estate of many Princes especiallie of those who are neigh bors and confiners Thirdly it would be the design of that Pope if he could by any meanes to inuest their order of some Citty or temporall Iurisdiction with the which they would afterwardes make way for a thousand other designes whichthey could neuer effect without the damage of other Princes Fourthly when the Consistorie shoulde be entirely Iesuited the whole patrimony of Christ wold be in their hands and as one that hath the dropsie the more he drinkes the more he thirsts so their Ambition growing with their greatnes wold occasion a world of trouble Now because ther is nothing more subiect vnto change then matter of State these fathers with all their power and cunning would endeuour to alter the course of affairs that they might finally in duce the forme and proiect of their own gouernment and by that means absolutely immonarchize thē selues They haue had it long in their heads to gaine into theyr society the sonne of some Prince vvho should absolutely inuest the companie of his state and this they had long since attained if some others wisely spying out their design had not preuented them But hadde they once obtained that they would without anie difficulty haue made themselues Patrones of the state Ecclesiasticall and as they are very inuentiue subtle they woulde afterward haue foud out a thousand waies howe to enlarge it Thus they wold haue wanted no meanes that might make thē masters of their proiects and if nothing els would haue done it the ielousies which they would haue raised in the mindes of their confining princes would haue don thē no small seruice It is therefore most necessary that for the preseruation of publike peace for the maintainance of states for the increase of the holye Church and for the common good of the vvhole world that Paul the fifts Holinesse together with other Princes shold set bounds and limits to this society whose desires are so extremely inordinate least haply that followe which was anciently effected by the Dauidi whose courses the Iesuites seem to imitate who were not destroyd til the time of Claudius the Emperor And when I shall bee commaunded to write my opiniō concerning an opportune remedy howe to rectifie these fathers without anie hurt to them but indeede to their great good desiring rather to make them Monarches of soules which are the treasurie of Christ then of the world or of the profite of the world which is nothing else but vile dung J am readie to perform it with charity and with all that ability which it shal please God to bestow vpon me Laus Deo FINIS