XIV. ; and they were restricted to their present members, and

forbidden to admit new ones.
The Brief continues in the following words : — "The late apostolic letter of Clement XIII., of blessed memory, our immediate predecessor, by which the institute of the Society of Jesus was again approved and recommended, was far from bringing any comfort to the Holy See, or any advantage to the Christian Commonwealth. Indeed, this letter was rather extorted than granted, to use the expression of Gregory X. in the General Council of Lyons.
"After so many storms, troubles and divisions, every good man looked forward with impatience to the happy day which was to restore peace and tranquillity. But under the reign of this same Clement XIII., the times became more full of difficulty and storm; complaints and quarrels were multiplied on every side ; in some places dangerous seditions arose, tumults, discords,
Scandal. scandals, which, weakening or entirely breaking the bonds of
Clement's Brief of Suppression, 1773 — continued. xliii
Christian charity, excited the faithful to all the rage of party hatred and enmities. Desolation and danger grew to such a height, that Expelled from the very sovereigns whose piety and liberality towards the Society Franc^Spam, were so well known, as to be looked upon as hereditary in their families — we mean our dearly beloved sons in Christ, the Kings of France, Spain, Portugal and Sicily— found themselves reduced to the necessity of expelling and driving from their states, kingdoms, and provinces, these very companions of Jesus; persuaded that there remained no other remedy to so great evils ; and that this step was necessary in order to prevent Christians from rising one against another, and from massacring each other in the very bosom of our common mother the Holy Church. The said our dear sons in Jesus Christ having since considered, that even this remedy was not sufficient for recon- ciling the whole Christian world, unless the said Society was absolutely abolished and suppressed, made known their demands and wishes in this matter to our said predecessor Clement XIII. They united their common prayers and authority to obtain that this last method might be put in practice, as the only one capable of assuring the constant repose of their subjects and the good of
Susuicious
the Catholic Church in general. But the unexpected death of the Death Of aforesaid pontiff rendered this project abortive. Clement XIIL
" As soon as by the Divine mercy and providence we were raised to the chair of St. Peter, the same prayers, demands, and wishes, were laid before us, and strengthened by the pressing solicitations of many bishops, and other persons of distinguished rank, learning and piety. But, that we might choose the wisest course in a matter of so much moment, we determined not to be precipitate, but to take due time ; not only to examine attentively, weigh carefully and take counsel wisely, but also by unceasing prayers to ask of the Father of lights, His particular assistance under these circumstances ; exhorting the faithful to co-operate with us by their prayers and good works in obtaining this needful succour."
After remarking on what the Council of Trent had decided with respect to the clergy who were members of this Society, the Brief proceeds : —
" Actuated by so many and important considerations, and, as
xliv Clement's Brief of Suppression, 1773 — continued.
Grounds for wo hope, aided by the presence and inspiration of the Holy suppression. gpirit . compelled also by the necessity of our office, which strictly obliges us to conciliate, maintain and confirm the peace and tranquillity of the Christian Commonwealth, and remove every obstacle which may tend to trouble it ; having further considered that the said Society of Jesus can no longer produce those abundant fruits, and those great advantages, with a view to which it was instituted, approved by so many of our predecessors, and endowed with so many and extensive privileges : that, on the contrary, it was difficult, not to say impossible, that the Church could recover a firm and lasting peace so long as the said Society subsisted : in consequence hereof, and determined by the particular reasons we have alleged, and forced by other motives which prudence and the good government of the Church have dictated, the knowledge of which we keep to ourselves, con- forming ourselves to the example of our predecessors, and particularly to that of Gregory X., in the General Council of Lyons ; the rather as in the present case we are determining upon the fate of a Society classed among the mendicant orders, both by its constitution and privileges ; after a mature deliberation, we do, out of our certain knowledge and the fulness of our apostoli- cal power, SUPPRESS AND ABOLISH THE SAID SOCIETY : we deprive Their pro- it of all power of action whatever, of its houses, schools, colleges, Sited confis" hospitals, lands, and in short, every other place whatever, in whatever kingdom or province they may be situated ; we abrogate and annul its statutes, rules, customs, decrees and con- stitutions, even though confirmed by oath and approved by the Holy See, or otherwise ; in like manner we annul all and every its privileges, favours general or particular, the tenor whereof is, and is taken to be as fully and as amply expressed in this present Brief, as if the same were inserted, word for word, in whatever clauses, form, or decree, or under whatever sanction, their privileges may have been conceived. We declare every authority of all kinds, the General, the Provincials, the Visitors Offices and other Superiors of the said Society, to be for ever annulled annulled. an(j extinguished, of what nature soever the said authority may be, whether relating to things spiritual or temporal."*
* For proof of a direct conflict of authority between two Popes, see the letter to the Archbishop of Paris by the present Pope, at the end of this work.
Clement's Brief of Suppression, 1773 — continued. xlv
The Brief goes on to transfer all the authority to the Ordi- Clerics to join naries ; and orders, that all Jesuits who had not as yet received ' holy orders, might dispose of themselves as they pleased; all clerics were to join other regular orders, or become secular priests. If any Jesuits were allowed to become teachers of youth "in any college or school, care " was to " be taken that they should have no part in the government or direction of the same."
After other directions the Brief proceeds : — " We likewise abrogate all the prerogatives which had been granted to them, by their General and other Superiors, in virtue of the privileges obtained from sovereign Pontiffs, and by which they were per- mitted to read heretical and impious books, proscribed by the Holy See ; likewise the power which they enjoyed, of not observing the stated fasts, and of eating flesh on fast-days ; likewise the faculty of reciting the prayers called the canonical hours, and all other like privileges ; our firm intention being that they do conform themselves in all things to the manner of living of the secular priests, and to the general rules of the Church.
" Further, we do ordain that after the publication of this our Brief to letter, no person do presume to suspend the execution thereof, forc under colour, title, or pretence of any action, appeal, relief, explanation of doubts which may arise, or any other pretext whatever, foreseen or not foreseen. Our will and meaning is, that the suppression and destruction of the said Society, and of all its parts, shall have an immediate and instantaneous effect in the manner here above set forth : and that under pain of the greater excommunication, to be immediately incurred by whosoever shall presume to create the least impediment, or obstacle, or delay in the execution of this our will : the said excommunication not to be taken off but by ourselves, or our successors, the Roman Pontiffs."
The Brief was not to be a temporary measure ; the express words of the latter part being: — "Our will and pleasure is that these our letters shall be for ever and to all eternity valid, Valid for ever. permanent, and efficacious, have and obtain their full force and •effect ; and be inviolably observed by all and every person whom they may concern, now or hereafter, in any manner whatever."
xlvi Clement's Brief of Suppression, 1773 — concluded.
"Lastly, our will and pleasure is, that to all copies of the present Brief, signed by a notary-public, and sealed by some dignitary of the Church, the same force and credit shall be given as to this original.
" Given at Rome, at St. Mary the Greater, under the Seal of the Fisherman, the 21st day of July, 1773, in the fifth year of our Pontificate."
Jesuit statis- It is worthy of remark, that at the time of the suppression of the Order, now nearly a century ago, the Society numbered 39 houses of professed members, 669 colleges, 61 noviciates, 196 seminaries, 335 residences, 223 missions, and 22,782 members, dispersed everywhere. Among its members were 24 cardinals, 6 electors of the empire, 19 princes ; and, though the consti- tutions forbid Jesuits to be bishops, there were 21 Jesuit arch- bishops, and 121 bishops. And according to the accounts of their historians they may be reckoned as possessing property in various kingdoms worth forty millions sterling, though they vowed poverty !
Jesuits con- Never was a more scathing denunciation of any society penned / ^an ig ^is crushing exposure of the evils of Jesuitism ; and if ever a Pope spoke "ex cathedra," Pope Clement XIV. did, when he thus powerfully and judicially condemned the constitution and malignant tendency of the Great Secret Society. It is a marvel, to those who peruse this document and look on the present progress of papal affairs from the outside, to see with what fiery and unscrupulous zeal, the very Society, thus denounced and crushed, has been seeking to establish the infallibility of the same authority that condemned it, and covered it with everlasting ignominy. If the Pope be infallible, then nothing can be more certain than that the Society .of Jesus is a curse upon the Christian religion and the human race. It would be vain to try to blacken the Order more completely, or to give it more crushing censure, than does the infallible head of the Romish communion, in his singularly calm and well- reasoned Brief of Suppression. To ordinary observers, there seems no way of escape from the dilemma. It is impossible for Protest- ants to add, or even to wish to add, to its completeness and force.
Cardinal Lorenzo Ganyamlli. xlvii
To give undue weight to the personal character of any Pope Calumny. in defence or support of any of his acts, is neither consistent with our ideas of what is due to the subject matter of this work, nor with a just appreciation of the facts upon which such Pope may have acted judicially, but inasmuch as it has been the policy of the Ultramontanes to vilify the memory of Clement the XIV., we quote the description of his character and disposition given in Ranke's History of the Popes.*
" Of all the Cardinals, Lorenzo Ganganelli was without Character of question the mildest and most moderate. In his youth his tutor said to him, ' that it was no wonder he loved music, for that all was harmony within him.' He grew up in innocent intercourse with a small circle of friends, combined with retirement from the world and solitary study, which led him deeper and deeper into the sublime mysteries of true theology. In lie manner as he turned from Aristotle to Plato, in whom he found more full satisfaction of soul, so he quitted the Schoolmen for the Fathers, and them again for the Holy Scriptures, which he studied with all the devout fervour of a mind convinced of the revelation of the Word. From this well-spring he drank in that pure and calm enthusiasm which sees God in everything, and devotes itself to the service of man. His religion was not zeal, persecution, lust of dominion, polemical vehemence ; but peace, charity, lowliness of mind and inward harmony. The incessant bickerings of the Holy See with the Catholic States, which shook the foundations of the Church, were utterly odious to him. His moderation was not weakness or a mere bending to necessity, but spontaneous bene- volence and native graciousness of temper."
The advocates of the Society may urge that what one Pope destroyed another re-established : but this does not mend the matter. This double-dealing on the part of the Roman Double deal. Pontiffs may indeed suggest the thought that it is a very odd in£- sort of infallibility that the Roman bishop is possessed of; which says one thing at one time and another thing at another ; which makes one Pope unsay what another has most solemnly recorded as being the decision of the Holy Spirit. It is not for us to
* Raiike's " History of the Popes," vol. iii., pp. 212—214.
xlviii
, or the Bulk of 1773 8f 1814.
1814. Pius VII.
The Jesuits restored.
reconcile this shuffling with the candour and openness which should characterize the minister of truth. In fact there is herein Janus. furnished another of those proofs, of which " Janus "* brings forward so many, to show that this pretention to infallibility is an utter fallacy and absurdity, revolting to common sense, and in- sulting to the Most High.
Yet we cannot ignore the fact, nor can Jesuits themselves deny, that, to a certain extent, Pius VII. , in his Bull re-establishing the Society of Jesus in 1814, by his silence on the very points which led Clement XIV. to suppress the same order, allowed and endorsed the truth and validity of the accusations adduced by Clement. The " infallible " king of human souls, Pius VII., when, for political purposes, he promulgated his Bull giving a new life to the Company, does not utter a word that implies condemnation of the Brief of his predecessor. The terrible accusations brought against them are allowed to pass as terrible truths. The Brief of Suppression is spoken of as an act that was perfectly in order and necessary. And though he annuls that part which suppresses the order, he in fact gives fresh force to all the other parts, which hold up to the world the infamy of the institution. But Pius VII., monkish in all his ideas, was inclined to try all means, worthy or questionable, to hurl back the tide of liberal ideas; and though he was convinced of the fact that he was about to employ spiritual pirates, yet he said that he should consider himself as wanting in his duty if, while the bark of Peter was tossed to and fro amidst dangerous rocks, he should disdain the help of those "vigorous and experienced rowers"
The question still remains, why Jesuits should be so eager to establish the infallibility of the power which they have felt in time past to press so disastrously on their Order. The answer seems Dominion. to be, that the only thing they crave after is dominion for them- selves; and they see their way to it more easily through an absolute spiritual sovereignty than through a limited one ; they can manage one man more easily than a multitude of indepen- dent and troublesome prelates. Nero wished that all the iuhabi-
" The Pope and the Council " ; by " Janus." Rivingtons, 1870.
The Pope's salutary fear of the Jesuits. xlix
tants of Rome had but one head and one neck that he might end
them all at one blow. The Jesuits have a similar aspiration with The Jesuits
regard to the Church, over which they want to lord it without
control ; and they are blest with more than Nero's fortune, being
endowed with more than his cunning. They think they can
manage to get their own way by acting on the Pope's weakness
and fears. They have a remarkably efficacious and disagreeable
method of getting rid of those who stand in their way ; and they
know that the Popes are aware of their peculiar skill in this
respect. They flatter themselves that the lesson which they gave
to the infallible Pontiffs in times gone by — proving that they
were liable to die, though they were not liable to err, — will not
be lost on those with whom they may have to deal in time to
come. The future attribute of the Popes is to be INFALLIBILITY,
but it must be infallibility with a leaning to the interests of
Jesuitism, for fear of consequences. "What Voltaire said of the Voltaire.
government of Russia — that it was " absolutism tempered by
regicide " — will hold good in future of the supreme rule in the
Romish Church. The Pope is to be possessed of INFALLIBILITY,
TEMPERED BY FEAR OF SUDDEN DEATH. Sudden death.
Nor is it to be wondered at if the Pope should take a lesson from the past, and notice how every one who has been obnoxious to these men has been stricken down. Roman Catholic writers have remarked over and over again on the remorse! essuess of the Jesuit faction in their treatment of their opposers. Even the probability of opposition on the part of anyone has been enough to cause his removal out of the way. A remarkable instance of this is given in the death of Pope Clement VIII. when about to Death of Pope give his decision in the quarrel between the Jesuits and Domini- Clement VIII. cans. It was strongly suspected that the decision would be against the former, but the Pope was never permitted to give it. The Cardinal a Monte has informed us in his life of Bellannine,* that the Jesuit Cardinal said, while Clement was in robust health, that he would die before giving his decision. The exact words of
* See Vita Bellar minis, auctore Francisco Maria Cardinal! a Monte, Antwerp, 1031, p. 507.
1 Beilarmine's suspicious prediction.
the author, in Latin, are in a note below.* " Cardinal Bellarmme said, ' The Pontiff never will give that definition.' ' The Pontiff can and will give it,' answered his companion. Bellarmine rejoined, ' I don't deny that the Pope has the power and the will to do so ; yet I say, that he will never give this definition ; for indeed, if he will hasten this on, his life will first fail him.' " The author who heard this reply and was astonished at it, adds " Ita est pro veritate." Certain it is that Beilarmine's predic- tion was fulfilled.
cfementxm Clement XIII., from whom as the Brief of Suppression states, a letter of commendation " was extorted " by the Company of Jesus, when he was afterwards about to make an inquiry into the terrible accusations brought against the Order, passed away suddenly before any decision could be arrived at.
The remembrance of the fate of those of their own pre- decessors who have felt the force of Jesuit hate and cunning, will leave a deep impression on the minds of Roman Pontiffs, Especially will the Popes, in time of doubt and fear of their masters and tormentors, call to mind the unfortunate Ganganelli. Indeed that Pope was himself so well aware of the men with whom he was dealing, that when he signed the celebrated Brief — Dominus ac Redcmptor — which was to put an end to the Jesuit Society for ever, he told those around him that he knew he was signing his own death-warrant — "Sotto- scriviamo la nostra morte," Caraccioli says the words of the Pope were "This suppression will cause my death."f But,
Death War. ^0^ this was his conviction, Clement XIV., with all the
rant of * . . .
Clem. XIV. gravity of his position before him,, signed the Brief on July 23, 1773. All writers at that time represent him as possessing robust health. The Jesuit Georgel even says, " Ganganelli's strong constitution seemed to promise him a long career." Bernis wrote on the 3rd November of the same year, " His health is
* " Cardinalis Bellarmiiius inquit ; Pontifex nunquam hoc definiet. Posse et velle, excepit alter. Bellarminus rursus ; Pontificem posse et velle, non inficior ; aio tamen nunquam futurum, ut hoc definiet : iino id moliri si voluerit, vita prius eum deficiet."
t " Questa suppressione mi dara la morte."
The Justice of Clement's Bull vindicated, li
perfect and his gaiety more remarkable than usual." In the Pope Gangan.
month of April of the following year he was observed to grow liP°isoiied
rapidly ill and visibly to decline, without any apparent cause. His
physicians could not make out his complaint, and no medicine
could reach the seat of it, or control it. He lingered in great
torture for months, and died September 22, 1774. Every
symptom of poisoning was present when his body was opened.
The following dreadful description of his state is from the pen
of Caraccioli. " Several days before his death his bones were
exfoliated and withered, like a tree which, attacked at its root,
withers away and throws off its bark. The scientific men who
were called in to embalm his body, found the features livid, the
lips black, the abdomen inflated, the limbs emaciated, and covered
with violet spots. The size of the heart was diminished ; and Post-morter.i.
all the muscles were shrunk up, and the spine was decomposed.
They filled the body with perfumed and aromatic substances :
but nothing would dispel the rnephitic effluvia. The entrails
burst the vessels in which they were deposited ; and when his
pontifical robes were taken from his body, a great portion of the
skin adhered to them. All the hair of his head remained on the
velvet pillows upon which it rested, and on the slightest friction
his nails fell off." In fact the dead body retained no trace of
the living form, and every one was confirmed in the belief that he
had met foul play. The state of the poor disfigured, shattered
frame that Ganganelli left behind him, was convincing proof of
the unutterable tortures to which he had been subjected by the
Holy Society of Jesus : and induced the belief that those tortures
had been caused by the administration of the acqiia tofana of The Nun's
Perugia. We are told that some persons there, and the nuns in ^qua T°fana
particular, were notorious for the manufacture of this water,
which when drunk produced certain decay and death, though life
was more or less prolonged according to the strength of the poison
and the doses in which it was given. If every other of the
thousand proofs of Jesuit iniquity were wanting, this fearful
vengeance wreaked on Ganganelli and his dreadful end afford
ample vindication of the justice of the great act of his
life.
Grinfield, in his history of the Jesuits,* has the follow- G l's "History of the Jesuits.' ]>. -U\ri.
Hi To ic/iom the poisoning of Clement XIV. is due.
ing apt observations relating to this event. Speaking of the poisoning of Clement XIV. by those whom he had put down, and of the Pope's belief in this during his long agony, he says : — " Of this (their being his murderers) he felt the fullest conviction. Nor is it to be wondered at that he should have felt such gloomy forebodings. The approach of his death had been predicted by some peasants belonging to the ex- Jesuits. Insulting images and hideous pictures announced the impending catastrophe. Bicci, Evidence. the ex-General, encouraged these daring insults. His own rela- tive has minutely recorded them.f There cannot be stronger circumstantial evidence that Ganganelli fell a victim to the rage and detestation of the Order he had suppressed. The farce of subjection to Papal authority, which had been violated by so many acts of insubordination to Papal bishops, could not be more strikingly signalized and consummated, than by the tragedy of poisoning the Head of the Romish Church, and by their indecent triumph and inhuman satires after his decease."
Triumph. We have already referred to the motives which induced
Infallibility pius yjj to rest0re the Jesuit Order. He thought the Papacy
ortnesociety •>
dissolved and greatly in need 01 those rigorous and experienced rowers, as he described them in the brief of restoration ; but doubtless the leading motive which urged him was his knowledge of the sinister power of the Order, of which, with reckless ambition, he deter- mined to possess himself. This was believed to have been his primary motive, but it may have been quickened by apprehen- sions for his own personal safety. The long possession of the Papal chair by the present Pope, and his exemption from many of the misfortunes peculiar to those of his predecessors who had ventured to interfere with the operations or the safety of the Jesuits, thus seem to justify, in a Papal sense, the policy upon which Pius VII. acted in the restoration of the Order. But the tyranny over the Roman Catholic section of the Church, which the Jesuits have induced the Pope solemnly to inaugurate, is such, as to have cost him already the local temporalities of the Holy See in and about Rome, with the almost certain secession of the most intelligent portion of the Roman Catholic
t Roscoe's Memoirs of Scipio tleRicci, vol. i.. chap. 1. London. IH^H.
Brief of Pius IX. in favour of the Jesuits. liii
Church from communion with the Holy See, and a consequent diminution of the temporal power of the Papacy throughout the world. However, let the motives, and even the results, be what they may, the two opposing decisions'of Clement XIY. and Pius