§ 27. Of the new orders of monks which arose in this century, for that fruitful mother, the church, has never ceased to produce such fraternities,-we shall notice only those which have acquired some celebrity. We mention first, the French society of Fathers of the Oratory of the holy Jesus, instituted in 1613 by John Berulle [Peter de Berulle], a man of various talents, who served the commonwealth and religion, the court and the church, with equal ability, and was at last a cardinal. This institution was, in reality, intended to oppose the Jesuits. It has trained up, and is still training, many persons eminent for piety, eloquence, and erudition. But through the influence of the Jesuits, who were its enemies, it fell under a suspicion of broaching new doctrines in certain of its publications. The priests who enter this fraternity do not divest themselves of private property; but, so long as they continue in the society, (and they are at liberty to retire from it when they please,) they relinquish all prospects of admission

greater part of the French Abbés now do, in a thoughtless unprincipled manner, and kept up an illicit intercourse with a French lady, Madame de Montbazon. Her sudden death by the small pox, and the unexpected sight of her mutilated corpse, brought him to the resolution of becoming a Carthusian. The common statement is this. The abbot had received no notice of the lady's sickness, and after an absence of six weeks, returned from the country, to visit her. He went directly to her chamber, by a secret stair-way, with which he was acquainted, and there found her dead, and her corpse mutilated. For the leaden coffin which had been made for her was too short, and it was found necessary to cut off her head. The sight of her corpse in the coffin, and her head on the table, so affected him, that he resolved to forsake the world, and to embrace the severest monastic order. VigneulMarville, Mélanges d'Hist. et de Littérature, Roterd. 1700. 8vo. tom. iii. p. 126.) contradicts this statement. He says thus much only was true: the abbot had been a particular friend of this lady; and once, on waiting on her, he learned from a gentleman in her antechamber, that she had the small

pox, and was then wishing the attendance of a clergyman. The abbot went to call one; and on his return found her dying. He was much affected on the occasion; but it was two or three years after this event that he formed his rigorous establishment. And probably the additions and alterations of the story were invented, for the sake of giving it a romantic aspect. Be this as it may the abbot changed his life, and established an order, into which none would enter but melancholy people, who were weary of the whole world, and constantly in fear of losing heaven. They allowed of no scientific or literary pursuits, and in their library had none but devotional books. Their worship was continued day and night: and if a cloister contained so many as 24 monks, they were divided into three classes, which interchanged continually. All these monks lived very austerely; and observed a rigorous silence, conversing together only once a week, and then not on worldly things. Their time was divided between manual labour, the canonical exercises, and private devotion. They lived wholly on bread, herbs, and pulse. Schl.]

to my red office vuch as attachert D t ised venues. When are requiret autifuly a tisnarte al The duties spriest nake I der rarest are and alfr 20mong themselves and lers for Lld more Gfamady a tan art af profitably tisareng se futes. Their Sunelatione, Stenstra, nay not morcery be denominated anane ka menetida taratury, in more recent times, however, they nærs in fact, begin to teach the liberal arts and sacred With these we join the Priesta of the Missions, an order lovaded by Vincent de Paul, who was canonized not long Ryfy They were constituted a reglar and legitimate society in 1652 by Ceban VIII. To fulfil the designs of their founder, they must attend especially to three things: first, to improve and amend themselves daily by prayers, meditation, reading, and other things: secondly, to perform sacred missions among the people living in the country towns and villages, eight months in the year, in order to imbue the country people with religious knowledge, and quicken their piety; (from which service they derive their name of Priests of the Missions :) and lastly, to superintend seminaries, in which young men are educated for the priesthood, and to train up candidates for the snered office. Under the counsel and patronage of the Priests of the Missions are the Virgins of Love or the Sisters of

learning: but the Italians pursue, especially, church history; while the French pursue all branches of learning. The founder of this order, Berulle, was in so high favour with the queen of France, Anna of Austria, that cardinal Richelieu envied him and his death, which occurred in 1629, was so sudden, that some conjectured he died of person. The Fathers of the Oratory are not moris, but secular clergymen ; mor do they chant any canonical hours. They are calid Faiders of the Oratory, house they have no charches, in

• the saves are adminsBev det en CIADOS E SE na, a Ax noč zranes and preach.

Charity; whose business it is to minister to the indigent in sickness. They originated from a noble lady, Louisa le Gras; and received the approbation of Clement IX. in 1660. The Brethren and Sisters of the pious and christian schools were instituted by Nicholas Barre in 1678. They are usually called Piarists; and their principal object is the education of poor children of both sexes'. But it would be tedious to expatiate on this subject, and to enumerate all the religious associations which, in the various parts of the Romish jurisdiction, were now set up with great expectations, and then suddenly neglected and suffered to become extinct.

§ 28. The society of Jesuits, by which as its soul the whole body of the Romish community is governed, if it could have been oppressed and trodden to dust, by hosts of enemies, by numberless indignities, by the most horrid criminations, and by various calamities; must undoubtedly have become extinct, or at least must have been divested of all reputation and confidence. The French, the Belgians, the Poles, the Italians, have attacked it with fury; and have boldly charged it, both publicly and privately, with every species of crimes and errors that the imagination can conceive of, as most pernicious to the souls of men and to the peace and safety of civil governments. The Jansenists especially, and those who accord with them partially, or wholly, in sentiment, have exposed its character in numberless publications, strengthened not merely by satire and groundless declamation, but by demonstrations, testimony, and documents, of the most credible nature'. But this immense

Gobillon, Vie de Madame le Gras, fondatrice des Filles de la Charité; Paris, 1676. 12mo.

Helyot, Hist. des Ordres, tom. viii. cap. xxx. p. 233.

2 Here is matter for a volume, or rather for many large volumes. For there is scarcely any part of the catholic world, which does not offer for our inspection, some conflict of the Jesuits with the magistrates, with other orders of monks, or with the bishops and other religious teachers; from which the Jesuits, though they might seem to be vanquished, yet finally came off victorious. An attempt was made to bring together all these facts, which lie

scattered and dispersed through numberless writers, by a man of the Jansenist party, who a few years ago undertook to write a history of the order of Jesuits, if he should be permitted to fulfil the promises in his Préface: Histoire des Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus, tom. i. Utrecht, 1741. 8vo. And no man was more competent to finish the work commenced by him, than he; unless we are to regard as fabulous, all that he tells us respecting his travels and his sufferings for many years, while exploring the plans, policy, and operations of the Jesuits. But this good man, imprudently venturing to go into France, was discovered, it

na zemer and of nos fenteri memies soms not so much 9, tave, Bradored and tepposed te weet as to have exalted it net meteret, a, vrt possessivta and honours of every kind. Vara demulta, without parrying the writes of their enemies by peguam and they deputation bas by sence for the most pact, and patierre, have teid on their eccrse, amidst all these sorina, and reaching their desired haven, have possessed themwlarm, with wonderful facility, of their supremacy in the Romish church. The very countries in which the Jesuits were once viewed as horrid monsters, and public pests, have, sometimes voluntarily, and sometimes involuntarily, surrendered no small share of their interests and concerns to the discretion and good futh of this most potent fraternity'.

29. Literature and the sciences, both the elegant and the solid branches, acquired additional honour and glory in the

in muid, by his enemies, and assassinated Hence his work was carried no further then the third volume. [Dr. Marlaine, in his note here, written at the Hague, about the year 1764, says this man was a Frenchman, named Thoard that he was then living at the Hague, that he had not been masBacked in France, but had returned in safety from his visit to that country; that his had never travelled, in the manner he pretended in his preface, to vollect information, but had collected all her tuformation from books in his stu ly, and had made up the story of hta tavola do amuse his readers and procity code to how book; and that

davau Was oth red for his having vodawdd fra promise to contrine Ju checkh, (in his

what was said and done against them, by the parliament, by the university of Paris, and by the people of France, may consult Cæsar Egasse de Boulay, Historia Academiæ Parisiensis, tom. vi. p. 559-648, 676. 738. 742. 744. 763. 774-890. 898. 909: who has scarcely omitted any thing relating to the subject. And what was the issue of all these most vehement contests! The Jesuits, after being ignominiously expelled from France, were first honourably received again, under Henry IV. in the year 1604, notwithstanding the indignation of so many men of the greatest reputation and of the highest rank, who were opposed to them. See the Memoires du Duc de Sully; the late edition of Geneva, vol. v. p. 83, &e. 314, &c. In the next place, they were admitted to the government both of the church and of the state; and this fellery they retain quite to our So it was when Dr. Mosheim “Event summa des et meinetabile

better provinces of the Romish church. Among the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, and the catholics of the Low Countries, there were men distinguished for their genius and their knowledge of various sciences and languages. But we must not ascribe this prosperous state of learning to the influence of the public schools. For in these, both of the higher and lower orders, that ancient, jejune, tedious, and barren mode of teaching, which obtunds, embarrasses, and perplexes, rather than quickens and strengthens the mind, and which loads the memory with a multitude of technical words and phrases, without meaning, and without use, has maintained its place quite down to our times. But beyond the limits of these reputed seats of learning, certain great and excellent men guided others to a better and more profitable method of prosecuting study. In this matter the pre-eminence is justly due to the French; who being prompted by the native powers of genius, and encouraged by the munificence of Lewis XIV. towards learning and learned men, treated nearly all branches of literature and science in the happiest manner; and rejecting the barbarism of the schools, exhibited learning in a new and elegant dress, suited to captivate the mind'. And how greatly the efforts of this very refined nation tended to rescue the other nations from scholastic bondage, no person, of but a moderate share of information, can well be ignorant.

§ 30. No means whatever could remove from the chairs of philosophy those misnamed Aristotelians, who were continually quoting Aristotle, while in reality they did not understand him. Nor could the court of Rome, which is afraid of every thing new, for a long time persuade itself to allow the new discoveries of the philosophers to be freely promulged and explained; as is manifest from the sufferings of Galileo, a Tuscan mathematician, who was cast into prison for bringing forward the Copernican system of astronomy. Some among the French, led on by René Des Cartes and Peter Gassendis, of whom, the

This will be found illustrated by Voltaire, in the noted work already quoted repeatedly: Siècle de Louis XIV. and in his Additions to that work, [in the edition, Paris, 1820. vol. ii. cap. xxxi-xxxiv. Tr.]

5 Gassendi's Exercitationes Paradoxa adversus Aristoteleos, is in his Opera, tom. iii. p. 95, &c. and is an accurate and elegant performance, which did great harm to the cause of the Peripatetics. See the remarks already made,