THE JESUIT INSTITUTE IS NO NOVELTY.

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works of the Lord; at others, he transforms himself into an angel of light (as saith the same apostle), and, under the colour of religion, impugns religion, to the great detriment of the same religion and scandal of poor simple folk, stimulating some religious men [monks] who with the cloak of zeal and piety, disturb other religious men who are their brothers, and all soldiers and ministers of the same Lord." Having finished his classification, he proceeds as follows: "Wherefore it has occurred to me to write this treatise, and to imitate in it the true men already named, the glorious and most learned Doctors St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure, and (although with unequal wealth of spirit, learning, and prudence) to give the reason for certain things of our Institute, which some oppugn, for not knowing well the reasons which the Company has for using them. I hope, with the infinite bounty of the Lord, that he will guide us in such a manner, that all those who with clear and dispassionate eyes should read it, may understand that the things which at the present time seem novelties, were ancient, and used in the church of the Lord in past ages; and that our Institute has a most excellent end in view, and that the means she uses are most reasonable and fashioned to attain that end. And with this, those who, for not knowing our Institute, think ill of it, will be disabused; and those who knowingly oppose it, will give way or be confounded; and the Lord (whose work the Company is) shall be glorified as her author and protector; and the good will be edified and more kindly disposed to what they shall see founded in reason, in antiquity, in authority, in doctrine, and custom of the holy Fathers and masters of all Institutes." 1

1 Tratado .. de la Comp. de Jesus. Dedication.

Ribadeneyra fulfils his promise. To the Catholic triumphantly he proves all he undertakes. Fathers,

After all,

there is

nothing new

Institute!

Councils, and Catholic Reason fly forth at his bidding, and every distinctive characteristic in the Jesuit of the Society is proved to be established, as he promised, in the antiquity, authority, doctrine, custom of the Fathers, and Catholic Reason. By this Jesuit's showing, you will be astounded by the fact (if you did not believe what I said of Ignatius and his Institute, in the first pages of my work)-you will be astounded by the fact, that the essential features of this least Company of Jesus are as old as the sun of Rome. Her name, her absence of any peculiar dress, the absence of a choir, her gratuitous services, blind obedience obediencia ciega que pide y enseña la Compañia,--her eschewing of church-dignities, manifestation of conscience; in a word, all are antiquities, and only revived by holy Father Ignatius. In truth, there's nothing new under the sun!

This establishes the fact that Ignatius and his companions knew what they were about. They worked with an object. We can now believe that before drawing up the Constitutions, Ignatius had read the rules and histories of the religious orders; and only selected what accorded with his own peculiar organisation. Thus all the mind of Catholic antiquity had a share in constructing the Jesuit. The multiform man prospect was is but a patchwork after all. "Legion" is a subscription-devil. The whole mystery is explained. All is quite natural. The "inspiration," the "revelation," the "lambent flame" round about his head, which the Jesuit biographers talk about, is all moonshine for "poor simple folk,"-la gente simple y vulgar.

Still, what a

before them!

1 Bouhours ii. 343.

Neither Christ nor the Virgin Mary has a share in the Jesuit, as the Jesuit Tollenarius affirms in the famous Imago. He is the joint-manufacture of the Fathers, the Councils, Catholic Reason, and Don Ignacio, ci-devant warrior, penitent, anchoret, strolling preacher, pilgrim, and now General of the Jesuits, and sturdy right arm of the pope and popedom. Such a man, and such companions, (Ribadeneyra, whom you have heard, was one,) are expressly needed. The pope of Rome, the Catholic kings of the earth, bethought them that such men would be valuable friends to their cause-the subjugation of the masses, at that time set in commotion by the ardent breathings of liberty, civil and religious. Oh! 'twas a glorious prospect-a spirit-stirring something-beyondness! Far across the wide oceans, too, Atlantic and Pacific, millions were waiting, ready to be subdued to the yoke. The sword would compel, but "Christianity" would induce, subjection. The preaching of the Gospel could secure the reign of Mammon. The banner of the cross could sanctify the tyranny of kings. And the kings of the earth made friends with the Jesuits, gave them their hands, and with their hands, right joyously, full purses; and for a time they worked together in amity-friends indeed because friends in need. The first movements of the Jesuits heralded the sublimest epoch of their achievements. They began with hazardous enterprise: they have rarely shrunk from peril. If they become monopolists, they will be visited with the odium of those who cannot cope with them either in the peculiar quality of their commodity, or the price of the article, which was dirt-cheap. For nothing" you might have the services of men of

66

1 Post Christum et Mariam Societatis Auctor et Parens Sanctus Ignatius, P. 78.

action and men of study; men qualified for daring enterprise, and men capable of profound policy; men of dauntless resolution, and men of insinuating manners; men who can win the favour and gain the confidence of the gentler sex, and men who can mingle in all the intrigues of state policy; men who, with a martyr's zeal, will risk everything for the conversion of the heathen abroad, and men of polemic skill to carry on controversies at home; but, withal, in mercy, excuse him, if you can, should you find, for ever and ever, in the Jesuit, a complete devotedness, body and soul, to the interests of his order, ever ready-nay, eager at the least sign of holy obedience, to perform any function in that Company, which now undertakes, with papal approbation, that is, secundum artem, to drug mankind with what she calls

A THOUSAND NOSTRUMS FOR ALL DISEASES.2

Baptist Magazine, No. cxi.

2 Mille agitent morbi, mille ulcera, mille dolores;

Illa domus causas mille salutis habet.-Imago, p. 454.

For Man's thousand diseases and ulcerous ills

This Company mixes her doses and pills.

BOOK IV. OR, LAINEZ.

SPLENDID was the prospect before Ignatius and his troop full of difficulty, but full of hope-for an unconquerable Will impelled them: to dare, was The prospect

and the

resolution.

to be victorious. The Vicar of Christ had declared to the disciples, the designs and intentions of the Eternal respecting their leader. Two worlds of virgin-pagans were added to the world of cast-away Christians. The barbarians, as they were deemed, of the East, and the cannibals of the West, were destined to compensate the Church for her losses in this little old world of ours-nostro piccolo e vecchio mondo. These barbarians and cannibals were to supply the place of the heretics consigned to perdition. But it was incumbent that a man should arise full of charity, zeal, courage, and Apostolic zeal wherewith to fill a multitude of such heroic workers, ready to sacrifice their labour, sweat, blood, and life, to the preaching of the Gospel and the conquest of souls; craving nothing in return-stipulating no reward for their labour, excepting only the "merit" of the performance whithersoever the sign was given to them, thither to rush professionally bound, to do the work of the