CENTURY SEVENTEENTH.

SECTION I.

THE GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

§ 1. The Romish congregation for propagating the faith.-§ 2. Urban VIII. The college for propagating the faith.-§ 3. French congregations of this kind. § 4. Hence many missionaries; among whom, the Jesuits are distinguished.-§ 5. Yet the Jesuits became suspected.-§ 6. The plans of the Jesuits cause contention.-§ 7. Propagation of christianity in India.-§ 8. The kingdoms of Siam, Tonquin, &c.-§ 9. China.-§ 10. Progress there. -§ 11. The Jesuits accused.-§ 12. The principal accusation. History of it. 13. Chinese controversy. The first question.-§ 14. The second question.-§ 15. Christianity in Japan.-§ 16. Destroyed and overthrown. - 17. Protestant missions in Asia.-§ 18. In Africa.-§ 19, 20. In America.—§ 21. The enemies of christianity in England.—§ 22. Hobbes, the earl of Rochester, &c.-§ 23. Vanini, Rugger, Leszynski, Knutzen.— § 24. Benedict de Spinoza.-§ 25. Literature and science cultivated and improved. § 26. Mathematical science especially.-§ 27. History.-§ 28. Languages and eloquence studied.-§ 29. The Law of nature.-§ 30. Aristotelian and Paracelsic philosophy.-§ 31. Peter Gassendi.-§ 32. The Cartesian philosophy.-§ 33. Its principal adversary, Gassendi.-§ 34. Two sects of philosophers, the mathematical and metaphysical.—§ 35. Propagation and improvement of the metaphysical philosophy.-§ 36. Progress of the mathematical philosophy.-§ 37. Philosophers, who were not of these schools.

§ 1. THE arduous efforts commenced by the Roman pontiffs in the preceding century, for extending the christian church, and thus exalting the glory and dominion of the Romish see, were in this century placed upon a permanent and solid basis : whereas, before, they had been tottering and ill-supported. In the first place, Gregory XV., at the instigation of his chaplain, Narnius, established at Rome, in 1522, the famous Congrega

tion for propagating the faith (Congregatio de propaganda fide), and furnished it with very extensive revenues. This body, which consists of thirteen cardinals, two priests, and one monk, together with a scribe', has for its object the support and the propagation of the Romish religion in all parts of the world. Urban VIII., and after him, numerous wealthy indiduals, enriched it with so great revenues that it is able to make almost unlimited expenditures. Hence, it sends out numerous missionaries to the most remote nations; publishes books of various kinds, necessary for learning foreign and some of them barbarous languages; causes instructions in christianity, and other works designed to enkindle piety or confute error, to be drawn up in the languages and appropriate characters of the several nations; maintains and educates a vast number of selected youth, designed for missionaries; liberally educates and supports young men, who are annually sent to Rome from foreign countries, in order to become instructors of their countrymen on their return home; takes up and provides for persons whose constancy in professing and defending the Romish religion has drawn on them banishment or other calamities; and plans and accomplishes various objects, almost beyond belief to those not acquainted with their affairs. Devoted to its use, the institution has a very splendid and extensive ' palace, the delightful situation of which gives it exquisite charms'.

§ 2. To this institution Urban VIII., in the year 1527, added another, not indeed equally magnificent, yet renowned, and very useful; namely the College or Seminary for propa

1 Such is the number of members in this body, as stated by Gregory XV. in his bull for its establishment: Bullarium Romanum, tom. iii. p. 472, ed. Luxemb. Nor is a larger number mentioned by Urban Cerri ; Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 259. But Ja. Aymon, in his Tableau de la Cour de Rome, pt. iii. cap. iii. p. 279, makes it to consist of eighteen cardinals, one papal secretary, one apostolical prothonotary, one referent, or referendary, and one of the assessors and scribes of [the Inquisition, or] what is called the Sacred Office.

2 The authors who treat of this congregation, are enumerated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Lux Evangelii toti orbi exoriens, cap. xxxiii. p. 566. To whom may be added, Dorotheus Ascianus, De Montinus Pietatis Ecclesia Romance, p. 522, &c. where there is a list of the books published by the congregation, up to the year 1667. [The annual revenue of this congregation, near the close of this century, was about 24,000 Romish dollars. Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. seit der Reformation, vol. iii. p. 715. Tr.]

gating the faith; in which, from almost all nations, future heralds of christian truth to foreign countries, are educated, and instructed, and imbued with the utmost care in the literature and learning necessary for so important an office. The origin of this great institution was owing to the zeal of John Baptist Viles, a Spaniard residing at Rome; who, for this object, presented to the pontiff all his possessions and property, including an elegant house that he owned. Many others afterwards imitated his liberality, and to this day imitate it. Urban at first placed this College under the care and authority of three Canons of the three patriarchal churches at Rome: but since the year 1641, it has been under the control of the Congregation, already mentioned as established by Gregory XV.3

§ 3. In 1563 the Congregation of priests for foreign missions was instituted by the royal authority in France; and likewise the Parisian Seminary for missions to foreign nations was founded by certain French bishops and theologians, in which men might be educated and instructed, in order to become preachers of christianity among the nations estranged from Christ. From this Seminary go forth, even to the present day, the apostolic vicars of Siam, Tonquin, Cochin China, the bishops of Babylon, and the apostolic vicars of Persia, and other missionaries to the Asiatic nations; and they derive their support from the ample revenues of the Congregation and the Seminary. But the Priests for foreign missions, and

3 Hippol. Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques Religieux et Militaires, tom. viii. cap. xii. p. 78, &c. Urban Cerri, Etat présent de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 293, &c. where however the first founder is erroneously called Vives. [It is not certain, that Viles, rather than Vives, was the true name of the founder. He established ten scholarships, for youth from foreign lands. Cardinal Barberini, the pope's brother, in 1537 and 1538, added thirty-one more scholarships; for Georgians, Persians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Melchites, Copts, Abyssinians, and Indians; and in defect of these, for Arminians, from Poland, Russia, and Constantinople. The scholars on Barberini's foundation were to obligate themselves to become missionaries

among their own countrymen, or to go wherever the Congregation de Propaganda should order them.- Urban Cerri was secretary to the Congregation de Propaganda, and drew up an account of the Present State of the Romish church in all parts of the world, for the use of Innocent XI.; which fell into the hands of the Protestants, and was translated and published, English and French, in the year 1716. Schroeckh, Kirchengesch. seit der Reform. vol. iii. p. 715, &c. Tr.]

4 See, particularly, the Gallia Christiana Benedictinor. tom. vii. p. 1024, &c. Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, tom. viii. cap. xii. p. 84, &c.

They are generally called, by the French, Messieurs des Missions étrangères.

their pupils, generally have much contention and controversy with the Jesuits and their missionaries. For they are displeased with the method pursued by the Jesuits for the conversion of the Chinese and others; and moreover, the Jesuits will not submit to the commands of the apostolic vicars and bishops, appointed by the Congregation, agreeably to the pontifical ordinance; nor to the Romish College for propagating the faith. Likewise the French Congregation of the holy sepulchre, instituted by Autherius the [titular] bishop of Bethlehem, was required by Urban VIII., in the year 1544, to always have fit men in readiness to be sent to the nations ignorant of christianity, whenever the pontiff, or the Congregation for propagating the faith, should demand their services. The other bodies of less note, which were established in various countries, for the purpose of enlarging the church, and the pains taken by the Jesuits and the other orders to provide a supply of missionaries, I shall leave to others to enumerate and describe.

§ 4. From these colleges and societies issued those swarms of missionaries who travelled over the whole world, so far as it is yet discovered, and from among the most ferocious nations gathered congregations that were, if not in reality, yet in name and in some of their usages, christian. Among these missionaries, the Jesuits, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Capuchins, obtained the greatest glory. Yet they mutually assail and accuse each other publicly of disregarding and dishonouring the cause of Christ, and even of corrupting his holy doctrines. The Jesuits, in particular, are the most spoken against, both by the others, who labour with them in the glorious cause of enlarging the Saviour's empire, and by the great body of their own church. For it is said, that they instil into most of their proselytes, not the pure religion which Christ taught, but a lax and corrupt system of faith and practice; that they not only tolerate, and wink at, practices and opinions that are superstitious and profane, but even encourage them among their followers; that they amass vast riches by traffic, and by other unbecoming arts and occupations; that they are eager after worldly honours, and court the favour of

Helyot, loc. cit. cap. xiii. p. 87, 100.

the great by adulation and presents; that they involve themselves needlessly in civil affairs, and in the intrigues of courts; that they frequently excite seditions and civil wars in nations; and finally, that they will not obey the Roman pontiff, and the vicars and bishops whom he sends out. If one calls for the witnesses to support these heavy charges, he finds himself overwhelmed with their multitude and their splendour. For there are produced illustrious and very grave men from every catholic country; and among them are many, on whom can fall no suspicion of envy, credulity, or ignorance; such as cardinals, members of the Congregation for propagating the faith, and, what cannot be surpassed, some of the pontiffs themselves. Nor do these witnesses come forward unarmed for the contest, but assail the doubting with the very facts perpetrated by the Jesuits, particularly in China, Abyssinia, and Japan, to the great injury of the Romish cause".

§ 5. The Jesuits, although they exerted all their sagacity and cunning, (for which they are said to be pre-eminent,) in order to silence these accusations, yet could not prevent their being heard and regarded at Rome. Among many circumstances which go to prove this, may be mentioned especially the following, that the association at Rome, which controls absolutely all sacred missions, has now, for many years, employed the Jesuits more sparingly and more cautiously than formerly; and that on great and trying occasions, it sets a higher value on the sobriety, poverty, and patience of even the Capuchins and Carmelites, than on the abundant resources, the ingenuity, and the courage of the Jesuits. Yet neither this body, nor even the pontiffs, are able to correct all that they either tacitly or openly censure in the Jesuits; but are obliged, however much against their wishes, to tolerate a great number of things. For the disciples of St. Ignatius have acquired, in various ways, so great influence, and so much wealth, throughout the Romish world, that they dare menace even the monarch of the church; nor can they be compelled, without hazard, to obey his injunctions, whenever they refuse to do it. This most

A great amount of testimony is collected by the author of the Histoire

de la Compagnie de Jésus, Utrecht, 1741, 8vo, throughout the Preface.