of other Princes makes a man more cautelons and more apt to discern his own State and therefore they use to spend no small sum of money in the maintaining of Embassadors and Intelligencers yet are oftentimes deceived too in their Relations But the Jesuits that i their Father General and his Assistants as well by the Confessions and Consultations which their Correspondents to make residing in all Chief Cities of the Christian World as by means of their other Adherents of whom we shall discourse hereafter are most sincerly and punctually advertised of all Determinations that are concluded in the most secret Councils So that they better know a most all the Power Possessions Expences and Designs of Princes than the Princes themselves and that without any other expence than the Carriage of Letters the which notwithstanding in Rome alone as the Masters of the posts relate to us ariseth to Sixty Seveâ—ty Eighty and oft times to an hundred Crowns of Gold for one Courtier So that they knowing so exactly the Affairs of all Princes do not only dimiâ—â—â—h their credit among themselves but wound their Reputation both with other Princes and with their own Subjects depressing or advancing 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 Sâ—câ—ets of the peoples souls knowing who stands well affected to the Prince and who rests dissatisfied so that by these Relations which they have of State-Affairs they may easily sow Discord among Princes occasion a Thousand Jealousies and by their insight into the Subjects affection raise Commotions and division bringing into contempt the very Person of the Prince Whence we must conclude that the Interest of State doth not comport that any Prince should Confess Himself much less that he should permit any of his Confidents Fâ—iâ—nds Secretaries Councellors or other his Chief Ministers to confess themselves to persons that attend so diligently to spy out matters of State and to serve themselves of this means to insinuate it to the Favour of Princes since there is this day no want of Religious Persons men both for life and Learning to be regarded equally with the Jusuits whom in this kind they may employ and who attend nothing but the government of Souls and of their Monasteries Thirdly which is a greater discovery than yet we have made or shall make hereafter ye are to know that there are found amongst them four sorts of Jesuits The first consists of certain Secular People of both Sexes adjoyned to their Society who live under a certain obedience which themselves call A Blind Obedience squaring all their particular actions by the Jesuits Counsel resigning themselves most readily in all things to be commanded by them and these for the most part are Gentlemen or Gentlewomen the welthiest widdows or the richest Citizens or Merchants from all whom as from Fructiferous plants the Jesuits gather every year a copious Harvest of Gold and Silver Of this kind are those women who in Italy call themselves Chettine who are induced by the Jesuits to forsake the world which in the mean time they get their pearls apparel ornaments furniture of Huses and finally very great possessions The second sort is of men alone but those as well Priests as Lay men yet such as live a Secular life and such as oft-times by the mediation of the Jesuits obtain pensions Church-livings Abâ—ys and other Revenues but these make a â—ow to receive a habit of the Society at the pleasure of the Father General and therefore they are called Jesuits in Voto and by the labours of these men the Jesuits wonderfully avail themselves in the Fabrick of their Monarchy For they maintain in all Kingdoms and Provinces in all Courts of Princes and pallaces of great Men such of these as shall serve them in a kind which I shall declare unto you in â—he seventh point of this discourse The third sort of Jesuits are those who remain in Monasteries these are either Preists Clerks or Converts who because at the first they came not from that profession may at the pleasure of the Father General be deprived of it although of themselves the have no power to leavâ— it And these being such as have no Office of importance for the most part do simply obey in any thing that their Superiors command The fourth soâ—t is of politick Jesuits thorow whose hands passeth the whole Government of Religion and these are they who being tempted by the Devil with the same temptation that Christ had in the Gospel Haeâ— omnia tibi dabo have accepted the Bargin and therefore 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 meet together There resides the Head of these Polititians which is their General with a great number of others of the same proâ—ession who being first informed by their spies of all such weighty important matters as are to be treated in the Court of Rome having first among themselves agreed of such ends as for their own interest they desire each one takes hiâ— Office to goe every day their circuit thorow the Courts of Cardinals Embassadors and Prelâ—tes with whom cunningly they insinuate their discourse of such affairs as is then in hand or shortly to be handled representing it to them after what manner they please in the same shape that by reflection from their own ends themselves do apprehend it oft-times changing the aspect of the business and shewing black for white And because the first interpretations made especially by Religious men are wont to make a notable impression in the minds of him that hears them hence it proceeds that many time most important Affairs treated by the Embassadors of Princes and other grave persons of the Roman Court have not attained that success which Princes expected because the Jesuits had possessed their minds with their oblique relations effecting that those Embassadors or other Agents should have but small Credit with them And the same Artifice that they use with the Prelates of Rome they use also with other Princes either by themselves or by the means of their pensionary Jesuits out of Rome so that we may conclude that the greater part of Affaires throughout the Christian World doth pass through the Jesuits Hands and those only take effect against which they make no opposition Most stupendious andimpenetrable is the Art that in this kind they use which though it cannot by me be perfectly described yet may it lively be descryed by any Prince who will but vouchsafe to read this little touch that I give of them because he will presently reflect upon what things have past and as he shall understand the truth of my Discourse calling to mind with what Art things have been handled he will discover more of that which will seem strange and marvellous unto him For not being content with
aâ—ain some dignity which by any other means they could never have obtained For amongst them none are preferred to any Office of importance but only those whom they know prone to Advance their Society to that height of Greatness to which they Aspire and consequently none but such as are known to be sufficient in the Managing of State-Affairs Ninethly As from divers Flowers and Herbs by means of a Limbick a man may draw such as Oyntment as is fit to Heal a mortal Wound And as from several blossoms Bees suck honey so these Jesuits from the Infallible Relation which they have of all Princes Affairs and of all accidents that do happen in every State by the Politick power of their own discourse they Extract from them their own Commodity which is the only Remedy to cure that their Abominable wound of Covetousness and Ambition and they compose a certain art of their own Profit by which they obtain their ownends as well from the good of some as hurt of others but more often from the latter than the former Thus they usually shackle with their Fetters that Prince into whose Secrets they have Crept propounding to him that they have the only most Excellent means to make him the Master of his Desires but when by this means they have drawn their own purposes from him considering that the too swelling Greatness of that Prince may one day prove prejudicial unto them as Lawyers do their Causes they prolong as much as they can the success of that affair and afterwards by politick plottings and various Juglings they utterly Ruin those designs to which they had given a beginning The League of France 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 Spaniards yet in such manner performed so confirms this my discourse that there needs no farther Proof Tenthly From what hath been already said It necessarily follows That the Jesuits have no good intentions towards any Prince whatever either Temporal or Spiritual but only â—â—ve them so far as they may serve their own turnes Nay I followeth yet farther That no Prince much less any under Prelates can make the like use of then because they shew themselves at the very same time equally affected to all making themselves English with English Men French with French Spaniards with Spaniards and so with all other Nations and Countries according as their Occasions require from which they do intend to Extract their profit They have no regard to the prejudice of one more than of another and therefore those Enterprizes in which they have interineddled have seldom times succeeded well because they have no purpose to serve farther than their own Interests dictates to them And in this the Artifice which they use is most Notorious Some of them faining themselves to be partial to the Crown of France others to Spain others to the Emperour and some to other Princes of whom they deâ—â—re to be most favoured And if any of these Princes please to make use of some Jesuite whom he holds for his Confident Friend he immediatly writes to the Father General of the affair which he hath to treat on and expects his Answer together with Order what he shall do and consormable to that Commission he Rules himself Never regarding whether that Order be Conformable to the Intention of the Prince who commits the Care of that Affair to him But if the Society be served he takes little care what service he doth for the Prince Besides this because the Jesuites understand the Interest of all Princes and are most knowing in all things daily treated upon in secret Councils those who pretend to hold with France propound to the King and his principal Ministers certain Conditions of State and important Considerations which are sent to them from their Politick Fathers at Rome And those that pretend to hold with the Crown of Spain do just the same with them so with the rest From which Course and Cunning of theirs there ariseth such a Diffidence in the Hearts of Christian Princes that none will scarce give Credit to each other which is a main prejudice to the publick Peace and universal Welfare of Christendom The which Diffidence of theirs is that which makes it so difficult a thing to conclude a League against a Common Enemy and precious Peace to be of so little Value amongst Princes Further more With these artificious Devices they have so opened the Eyes of the World and sharpened mens Wits in matters of State that to this day to the notable prejudice of the Holy Church they attend to nothing else but matters of Policy and poize all their Actions in that false Ballance But to the end that these Jesuitical Stratagems may yet appear more plainly I cannot here conceal the means by which they inveigâ—e Princes to be of their party There are some years now past since one of these Fathers called Father Parsons the Assistant of England wrote a Book against the Succession of the King of Scotland to the Crown 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 seigning under a Specious Pretence to be at Discord amongst themselves although all this was indeed cunningly done and by the special Command of their Father General only for this purpose that whosoever should succeed in the Kingdom of England they might have an excellent Argument to work in him a great and good Opinion of their Society and so to extract their own Ends from him A fair Example to shew us that Princes are the Objects of all Jesuitical Actions and Determinations and by consequence to make good their own Saying That their Society is a Grand Monarchy Again That the Truth of this may appear That the Jesuits have no regard whether they please or displease any Prince where their own Interest is most nearly concerned Although experience of infinite Things past makes it as clear as the Sun at noon-day yet the Particulars which I shall here subjoyn will render it every way most evident There is no person in the world whom they are more bound to serve and obey than the Bishop of Rome not only for many other reasons but especially because they make a particular Vow to obey him Yet when Pius Quintus went about to reform some of these Fathers reducing them unto the Performance of their Duty in the Chair they would not obey him esteeming that a notorious Prejudice to their Society And those few who yielded themselves to the Popes Pleasure accepting that Profess ion were always afterwards mocked and jeered and called by their Fellows Quintini Nor could ever any of them get the least Preferment amongst them In the same kind they opposed Glorious Saint Charles Arch Bishop of Millain who as Legate
in small time it had made to pervert the first institution of it with an artificial subtilty instead of those two first branches of charity now utterly dâ—ied up he hath ingraâ—ted two other the one of self-love and the other of profit from which the Christian Republick receives such damage that haply a greater cannot be imagined as I am now about to demonstrate in this Dâ—â—coâ—â—se In the which I protest before God I have no moâ—ion either oâ— interest or passion but an innocent zeal of the publick Good for the which I do assure my self I was born and that Princes knowing their art fice may prevent them by opportune remedies Now weare to know that the Religious Orders of these Fathers the Jesuits being enâ—arged especially by the education of Children of which there is neither City nor Kingdom but hath need was even from the begiâ—â—ing there â—â— by very maâ—y much desired and by divers Princes so savoured thaâ— in few years it diffused it self as far as otâ—er Orders had done in many Hundreds This Greatness which almost always induceth into men minds a change of Custom raised up in the Heâ—rs of Father Ignatius such a love towards their Society that esteeming that more profitable unto the Church of God and more helpful in the Reformation of the world than all other Orders they concluded among themselves to endeavour with all art and industry to give increase to it and in that to give growth to the Cause of Christ the Good of the Church nay to use their own word to the only patrâ—mâ—â—y of Châ—â—st And here I 〈…〉 oâ— the subtilâ—y of Aristotle to discern and the eloquence of Cicere to express those mervellous means a thing which for the novelty of it to many seemeth 〈…〉 by which â—hese Fathers stiâ—l increase to their Socâ—â—ty Buâ— it shal be sâ—fficient for me to pâ—iâ—â— cut only some few things leaving a large Room for other mens judgments to aâ—â—e up a â—â—rm of what Idea tthemselves shall think fittest Yâ—t I shall not omit to propound some few Heads with which I intend to serve the Reader for the ground of this Discourse And First These Fathers the Jesuits thought it was not sufficient to promote their Society to that pitch of Greatness to the which they aspired only 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 proâ—â—ss of time they perceived that either for ill satisfaction or some other occasion whatever it was the affection of many grew cold towards them and therefore doubting least their Growth should end with their infancy they invented two other means to enlarge their Greatness The First was to work in the minds of Princes and consequently of as many others as they could a base opinion of all other Religious Societies discovering their imperfections and after a cunning manner from other depressions raising their own Greatness and by this means they impatronized themselves of many Monasteries Abbeys and other main possessions depriving those religious persons that first enjoyed them both of them and of all that belonged to them The second Means was to thrust themselves into Affairs of State gaining interest with the greatest part of Christian Princes and that with as subtil and artificious a device as ever yet the World brought forth into which as it is very hard to penctrate so it is almost impossible sufficiently to explain it There refides continually in Rome the Father General to whom all the rest render most exact Obedience and there is Choice made of some other Fathers who from the Assistance they always give him are called his Assistants and there is one at least of every Nation who from that Nation takes his Name Hence one is stiled the Assistance of France a second of Spain a third of Italy a fourth of England a fifth of Austria and soof all other Provinces and Kingdoms every one of which hath it assigned to him as his particular Office to inform the Father General of all Accidents of State which occur in that Province or Kingdom of which he is Assistant And this Office he performs by the means of his Correspondenss who reside in the principal Cities of that Province or Kingdom who with all industry first inform themselves of the State the Quality Nature Inclination and intention of Princes and by every Courrier advertise the Assistants of such Accidents as are rewly discovered And these again communicate all unto the Father General who meeting in Council with all his Assistants they make an Anatomy as it were â—f the whole World confering the Interest and Designs of all Christian Princes Here they consult of all fresh Intelligences received from their Correspondents and curiously Examining them and conâ—â—â—râ—ing them together at last they conclude to favour the Affairs of one Prince and to depress the Designs of an other as shall be most requisite for their Interest and profit And as those Who are Standers by at some Game more easily discern the Stroke than those that gave it so these Jesuits having in one View the Interest of all Princes know very well how to observe the condition of place and Time and how to apply the true means of advancing the Affairs of that Prince from whom they know they shall draw most water to their owen Mâ—â—ls However this is a thing simply evil that Religious men should so much intermingle with matters of State in being their duly rather to attend the saving of their own and other mens Souls being for that end onely retired from the world but by this means they are more intangled than the very Secular persons themselves and for many most pernicious Consequences we shall find this their Course most Wicked and worthy of a speedy and potent Remedy For First These Jesuits are Confessors to the greatest part of the Nobility thorowout all Roman Catholick States Nay and the better to attend them they will not admit poor men or poor Women to their Confessions but rather aim to be Confessors to Princes themselves So that by this Course it is easie for them to penetrate every Design every Resolution and Inclination as well of Princes as of Subjects of all which they suddenly Inform the Father General or his Assistants in Rome Now any man that hath the least measure of understadning may easily perceive what a prejudice they bring to Princes by this device when only their own Interest stirs them to that to which as to their last end they direct all their Endeavour Secondly whereas secrecy is a proper and unseparable Accident which so accompanieth the preservation of a State that without it the Ruin of a State must needs follow Therefore all Princes are most rigorous against those who discover their Secrets punishing them as the Enemies both of them and their Countrey And as on the other side to understand the designs
a Latere to his Holiness endeavoured to reduce them to a Religious Discipline But what should I speak of these since they obey not the Sicred Canons themselves but against their Decrees make Merchandize of Pearls Rubies and Diamonds the which they bring from the Indies And there is an Opinion that the greatest paâ—t of Precious Stones which are sold in Venice belong to the Jesuits the ground of which Opinion hath been received from their own Brokers whom they have employed in the Sale of them But that they are no faithful Servants to the Bishop of Rome those Fathers well know who for default of their Service were called by Process to Rome I need not name them nor will I wade farther into this matter as well that I may not be compelled to speak of some Prince whom my Discourse may not very well please my self designing to do Service to all and to offend none as because I intend not here to make so large an Invective against the Jesuits as they deserve but only to give a short and plain Draught of their Courses and Customs For as many times we behold one afflicted with some grievous Infirmity sending forth such lamentable Cries as reach Heaven it self and every one perceived that the man is terribly indisposed but no man is able to discern the original cause of his Evil so the whole World complains of the Jesuits some for being persecured others for being tortured and some for being treacherously served by them but the Mischief still remains amongst us nor is the Cause thereof easily discovered which is nothing else but an immense desire which they have to increase their own Power in respect whereof they esteem it nothing to vilifie or murther any man or to deceive Princes and to oppress the Poor to extort from Widows their Estates and wrong the Fatherless What shall I say to ruinate most noble Kingdoms nay many times by their intermeddling with all important Affairs in matters of State it causes Jealousies and Despite amongst Christian Princes Now as there would follow a great inconvenience if that part which was last formed by Nature as an instrument to serve the rest that were more Noble should attract unto it self all the purest Blood and Vital Spirits because this I say were the way utterly to dissolve the whole so it is as inconvenient that the Religion of the Jesuits planted into the Body of the Holy Church as Instruments for the Conversion of Hereticks and the perswading of Sinners to Repentance should bring within their own Power all the most weighty and important Affairs of Princes and Prelates and extracting from them the very Life and Spirit of their Interest should convert them unto their own purposes Because from hence both private and publick Peace is disturbed many depressed which were worthy to be exalted and many exalted which deserve to be depressed with a thousand inconveniences which would follow upon it I could produce many reasons taken from experience it self to demonstrate what a ingorgeous ambition the Jesuits have to increase their greatness but it shall here suffice to make it known from Father Parsons own words recorded in a book of his composed in the English Tongue Intituled the reformation of England where haveing first blamed Cardinal Pool and haveing also observed many wants and Imperfections in the Council of Trent at length he concluded That 〈◊〉 England should return to the Roman Catholick Faith he would reduce it to the Form and State of the Primitive Church making common all Ecclesiastical Goods and 〈◊〉 the Charge of them unto seven Sagii or Wise-men which should be Jesuitâ— and they should make Distribution of Goods at their pleasure Nor is it his will nay he 〈◊〉 it under a grievous Penalty that any Religious person of what Order soever should return into England without their License resolving that none should enter there but those who should be Maintained by Almrs. But as it oft falls out that Self-Love blinds the Wisest Man that he becomes the greattest Fool it is most Ridiculous which the same Father subjoyns in that place When England sayes he shall once be reduced to the true Faith it will not be Convenient that the Pope at the least for five years space should look to receive any fruit from the Ecclesiastical benefices of this Kingdom but remit all into the Hands of those Seven wise Men who should dispense them as they conceived best for the good of the Church This being his designe that the first Five Years being past by some other Invention of which they are very fâ—â—l they would re-confirm the same Priviledge for Five Years more and soonwards till they had utterly excluded his Holiness from England Now who seeth not here as in a Table the Covetousness and the Ambition of the Jesuits naturally describ'd together with the hearty desire they have to make themselves Monarchs and who seeth not with what cunning they endeavour to promote their own designes procuring it either from the Good of some or Iâ—l of others What should I say more of them In the time of Gregory the Thirteenth Did they not make it their Request that they might be Invested 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 Have they not finally obtained in England Where they not long since have chosen an Arch-priest one of the Jesuits in Voto who instead of protecting the Clergy like a Ravening Wolf persecutes all such Priests as are not depending upon the Jesuit driving them to terms of desperation and depriving them under a great Penalty of mutual Communication so that by this time almost all the English Roman Clergy are Jesuits in Voto Nor do they accept any into their Colledges who hath not pass'd his word to become a Jesuit so that when that Kingdom shall return to the Antient Faith England will be like to give a beginning to an absolute Jesuitical Monarchy because all the Ecclesiastical Revenues all the Abbeys Bâ—â—â—fiâ—â—â— Bishopricks Arch Priest-ships and other Dignities shall be conferred only by the Jâ—sâ—itâ— I here let pass many things as the pretensions which they make concerning other mens Estates how jealous they are of their Welfare and desirous of their Prosperity as the Favour which they endeavour to gain from Princes by making them believe that their Subjects are most devout to their Religion and consequently that theâ— are able to make them well-affected to the person of their Prince Such evident things as theâ—e I leave to every one to observe and with Four brief Consideration I will conclude this present Discourse First That Men of such High Spirits and such reaching Designs are always lovers of Novelty ever searching for it and begetting it because without some new-raised Motions it is impossible they should attain their Ends And theâ—efore the Jesuits cannot be helpful to any Prince that either loves Peace or the Conservation of his own State since they are more likely to be the Cause of much Trouble and Commotion Nay happily to deprive him of his whole State if he favour not their Party or be not partially governed by their Counsel Secondly If these who have not Temporal Jurisdiction are able to cause such great and prodigious Disturbances in the World What think ye would they do if one of them should by chance be created Pope First he would stuff the Consistory with Jesuits and by that means perpetuaâ—e the Popâ—dom to them and then directing themselves by their insight and interest of State and having the Arm and Power of the Pope they would be enabled to put in danger the State of many Princes especially of those who are Neighbours and Confiners Thirdly It would be the Design of that Pâ—pe if he could by any means to invest their Order of some City or Temporal Jurisdiction with the which they would afterwards make way for a thousand other Designs which they could never Effect without the Damage of other Princes Fourthly When the Consistory should be entirely Jesuited the whole Patrimony of Christ would be in their Hands And as one that has the Dropsie the more he drinks the more he thirsts so their Ambirion growing with their Greatness would occasion a vast Inundation of Trouble in the World Now because there is nothing more subject unto Change than matters of State These Fathers with all their Power and crafty Cunning would endeavour to alter the whole Course of Government that they might finally introduce the Form and Project of their own Government and by that means absolutely immonarchize themselves They have had it long in their Heads to gain into their Society the Son of some Prince who should absolutely invest the Company of his State and this they had long since attained if some others wisely spying out their Design had not prevented them but had they once obtained that they would without any dâ—fficulty have made themselves Patrons of the State-Ecclesiastical And as they are very invective and subtil they would afterwards have found out a thousand ways how to enlarge it Thus they would have wanted no means that might make them Masters of their Projects And if nothing else would have done it the Jealousies which they would have raised in the minds of their Confining Princes would have done them no small Service It is therefore most necessary that for the Preservation of publick Peace and for the Maintenance of States for the encrease of True Religion and for the Common Good of the whole World that they be utterly rooted out of all Christendom whose desires are so extreamly inordinate lost haply that follow which was anciently effected by the Davidii whose Course the Jesuits seem to imitate who weâ—e not destroyed till the time of Claudius the Emperour And when I shall be commanded to write my Opinion concerning an opportune Remedy how to rectifie Thâ—se Fathers and to convince them of their Erroneous Opinions desiring rather that they may be good Pastors of Souls which are the Treasury of Christ and not of the World or of the Profit of the World which is nothing else but vile Dung I am ready to perform it with Charity and with all that Ability which it shall please God to bestow upon me FINIS