CHAPTER XVIII. 1773 — 1814. — THK JESUITS DURING THEIR

SUPPRESSION. (Page 422.)
THE Brief of Suppression, as our readers may have seen, made a provision by which the Jesuits might, as secular priests and indi- viduals, exercise sacerdotal functions, subject of course to the episcopal authority. In consequence, some few of them had settled themselves quietly in different capacities ; others thought to con- ceal the Ignatian device under the new title of Fathers of the Faith, Fathers of the Cross, etc., but the greatest part, the most daring and restless, would not submit to the Brief of Suppression, impugning its validity in a thousand writings, called in question even the validity of Clement's election, whom they called parricide, sacrilegious, simoniac, and considered themselves as still forming a part of the still existing company of Jesus, regardless, as we have shown they always were, of the injuries they may cause to the faith, they declared war against Rome, against the Church, and surpassed even the school of Voltaire in audacity, in mocking, and insulting a virtuous Pope.* Although overwhelmed on every side, they were not daunted, and their courage was still greater than their misfortunes ; driven from those countries, in which they had been nurtured and cherished, and which ought to have been their natural abode, they turned their regard to the camp of their former enemies ; as Themistocles seeking protection from his ungrateful country under the canopy of that Persian throne, which he had shaken and almost destroyed, so those fiery persecutors of all religious sects, which were out of the pale of Rome, and especially
* St. 1'hebt, p. Of.
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of the Lutheran, had recourse for protection to the Lutheran Frederick of Prussia, and to the schismatic Catherine of Russia ; and we do not hesitate to advance, that had those monarchs, in exchange for some advantages and privileges, asked of them to comhat the Papal doctrines, they would not have imitated the Athenian hero, but would have fought against the Roman Catholic religion with the same ardour which they had employed on defending it. ...
We have already seen that Ricci (General of the Jesuits) in his examination confessed that he was in correspondence with his Prussian majesty ; and it is a fact that Frederick, even before the suppression of the Society, proved himself its friend and protector, notwithstanding the reproaches and sneers of his friends and masters, the Philosophers. D'Alembert, above all, assailed the king in all his vulnerable points, but in vain, Frederick remained firm in his purpose of supporting the Jesuits. "They say," wrote D'Alembert on the 16th of June, 1769, to his royal friend, " that the Cordelier, Ganganelli, does not promise sweetmeats (poires molles) to the Society of Jesus, and it may be that St. Francis of Assisi may kill St. Ignatius. It appears to me that the Holy Father, Cordelier as he is, will commit a great blunder in thus disbanding his regiment of guards out of complaisance to the Catholic princes. It seems to me that this treaty resembles much that of the wolves with the sheep, which were obliged by special condition to give up their dogs, every one knows how they fared for this ; however, it will be singular, sire, that while their most Christian, most Catholic, most Apostolic, and most faithful Majesties endeavour to destroy the grenadiers of the most Holy See, your most heretic Majesty should be the only one who wishes to preserve them."
This letter was written, as may be seen, before the Suppression, and many other missives were addressed to Berlin by D'Alembert after the Brief was issued. When the Jesuits of Silesia, refusing to obey the Papal orders, remained in their convents and houses as before, and acted as if nothing had happened, D'Alembert on the 10th of December, 1773, wrote to Frederick, telling him that he wished that neither he nor his successors might ever have cause to repent of granting an asylum to intriguers, and that these men
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might prove more faithful than they had been in the last war in Silesia. Another time, sneering at Frederick's condescension, he says, " That he much doubted whether the Jesuits would ever pay his Majesty the honour of admitting him to their order as they did the great Louis XI V., though he could well have dispensed with it ; and the poor miserable James II., who was much more fit to be a Jesuit than a king." January 1774. And passing from personal arguments to more general considerations, he says, " It is not on your Majesty's account that I dread the re -establishment of these formerly self-styled Jesuits, as the late Parliament of Paris called them. What harm, indeed, could they do to a prince whom the Austrians, *the Imperialists, the French, and the Swedes united, have been unable to deprive of a single village ! But I am alarmed, sire, lest other princes who have not the same power that you have to make head against all Europe, and who have weeded out this poisonous hemlock from their gardens, should one day take a fancy to come to you and borrow seed to scatter their ground anew. I earnestly hope your Majesty will issue an edict to forbid for ever the exportation of Jesuitic grain, which can thrive nowhere but on your dominions."* Frederick remained unmoved ; and when the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Breslau, thinking it was his duty to see the orders of the Holy See obeyed, attempted to interdict the Jesuits, the king interfered, confiscated the bishopric, and haughtily pro- claimed that the Fathers were under his protection. Then all throughout Silesia sprung up a great number of houses and colleges, and the Jesuits assembled here from all quarters ; it was on this occasion that the old Voltaire, laughing at his quondam disciples' strange conduct, exclaimed that " It would divert him beyond measure to think of Frederick as General of the Jesuits, and that he hoped that this would inspire the Pope with the idea of becoming Mufti. "f
Pages 427, 428. The accurate and impartial historian of the fall of the Jesuits, in an admirable chapter, explains the conduct of Frederick, in supporting the Jesuits, by the fact that the Prussian monarch had got angry with the Philosophers, when
* D'Alembert to Frederick, April 24, 1774. f St. Priest, p. 144.
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the latter, uot content with attacking the Christian religion, set to work to destroy monarchy, and ridicule every noble sentiment, which had till then been held sacred. He says that not only Frederick, but almost all the ministers of other 'princes, if not the princes themselves and the aristocracy, far from restraining the audacity of the Philosophers, had, to follow the fashion, made it a point of honour to encourage and to protect it, while attacking religion and priestcraft ; but when they (the Philo- sophers) leaving the churches and cloisters, penetrated into the antechambers and state-rooms, and their attacks became personal, then the great world, who had treated Christ and His Apostles with irreverence, would not endure* the like towards themselves. He says, moreover, that when the school of D'Holbach produced the too famous work the " Systeme de la Nature," Frederick's indignation knew no bound. In this book, in fact, written by thirty clever, daring, and excited individuals, nothing was left standing : " Each of them found something to take to pieces ; one began upon the soul ; another the body ; one attacked love, gratitude, conscience : all subjects were examined, dissected, disputed, denied, condemned loudly without appeal. It was a kind of Old Testament, which prefigured the New by types and
symbols Frederick read this hideous but prophetic book ;
a fatal light gleamed across his mind, and made him dread the future." * All this is admirably well said ; and by the answer, which the King of Prussia made to the " Systeme de la Nature," it clearly appears, that Frederick would not go the length of the new school, and wished to have nothing more to do with them.