suits, he received from Heaven, in the first years of his con version, miraculous favors, visions, raptures, and ecstasies, from which he appeared to gain extraordinary illumination *. PASQUIER, who witnessed the birth of the Jesuits, was not wrong in calling IGNATIUS one of the most subtle and skilful politicians that his age had produced; and this will plainly appear when the analysis of the government, statutes, and privileges of the Society shall be given. He had such a military genius, that, after his conversion, having had a dispute with a Moor, who maintained that Mary had ceased to be a virgin by be coming a mother, IGNATIUS regretted † that he had suffered this blasphemer to escape, and pursued him in order to kill him happily, the mule on which he was mounted, took a different road to that of the Moor, and hindered him from executing this pious design.

He soon obtained disciples; but meeting with opposition, he determined to go to Paris. That great city is properly the cradle of the Society. After having experienced various ob stacles there, which would have discouraged any other person, he set about forming new disciples; those whom he had had in Spain having deserted him. His first converts were LE FEVRE, who had been his private tutor, and FRANCIS Xavier, who taught Philosophy in the University; he added to them afterwards LAINEZ, SALMERON, BOBADILLA, and RODRIGUEZ : in order to fix his new disciples irrevocably, he took them, on the day of the Assumption, 1534, to the Church of Montmartre near Paris, where LE FEVRE, who had lately become a Priest, said Mass to them and gave them the Sacrament in the subterraneous chapel. After Mass, the whole seven, with a loud and distinct voice, took a vow to undertake, within a prescribed time, a voyage to Jerusalem, for the conversion of the Infidels; to abandon every thing they possessed in the world, except what they should need for their voyage, and, in

*BAILLET, Section 6.

See BAILLET on, the authority of MAFFE'E and Bouhours

case they should be unable to accomplish this, to go and throw themselves at the feet of the Pope, to offer him their services, and to proceed under his orders wherever he might think proper to send them. At length they were joined by three other disciples, namely LE JAY, CODUR, and BROUET. They arrived in Rome in 1538: being assembled at the house of QUIRINO GARZONIO, they agreed that the Society should be established, as soon as possible, as a religious Society, in order to prevent its being dissolved in future, and to enable it to extend itself in all places, and to subsist to the end of time, In spite of every obstacle which he encountered, he accomplished his object of obtaining the sanction of POPE PAUL III. for his Order +. He had presented the scheme of the Institution to that Pope in 1539, who referred it to three Cardinals for examination.

GUIDICCIONI ; one of the Referees, a man of great merit and learning, strenuously opposed this new Institution; he even wrote a book to establish the reasons of his opposition, and his authority determined the two other Cardinals.

During this examination an event took place, which was the origin of the great credit which the Jesuits afterwards obtained at the Court of Portugal. JOHN III. King of Portugal, wished to send Missionaries into India, and directed his Ambassador at Rome to select ten for the purpose: that Ambassador was MASCARENHAS §, who was closely connected with IGNATIUS, who is even said to have been his Confessor: he then asked him for some of his companions; IGNATIUS gavẹ

*See BAILLET.

This Pope, after he had founded the Order, struck two medals; one inscribed "The Gates of Heaven are opened;" and the other, “The "security of the Roman people." How far that event contributed to promote "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will "towards men," let the present History shew.

See Continuation of Fleury, Vol. xxviii. Lib. 139.

§ See Continuation of Fleury, and Life of Xavier, by BAILLET.

him RODRIGUEZ and BOBADILLA; the latter having fallen ill, XAVIER was substituted.

MASCARENHAS carried these two Missionaries with him into Portugal: they departed from Rome, 15th March, 1540, above six months before the approbation of the Institution. RODRIGUEZ remained in Portugal, and XAVIER went to India IGNATIUS now engaged for unlimited obedience to the Pope; PAUL III. flattered by this promise, began to shew himself more favorable. At length, upon the most urgent solicitations, and upon assurances of the most entire submission, PAUL III. by a Bull of the 27th of September, 1540, confirmed the Insti tution. Upwards of forty Bulls have followed, in which they have procured exemptions from all jurisdictions, as well ecclesiastical as civil; and from all tithes, and imposts on them and their property.

The Institution is a universal conspiracy against the rights of Bishops, Rectors, Universities, Corporate Bodies, Princes, Magistrates, and every power both spiritual and temporal! the exorbitant privileges with which they have clothed themselves, are only fit to overturn every state, and to spread distress and confusion in all places. It is decided by the Bulls, that the government of the Society is purely monarchical, and it will appear that, from the origin of their esta blishment, the Jesuits have proposed to swallow up all other Orders, authorities, and possessions; in a word, to concen trate all power in the Society, and to become universal Moparchs.

.

Every other Establishment has Assemblies, where all which concerns them is decided in Chapters, but in the Houses of the Society nothing is so decided. POPE Gregory XIV, by his Bull of 1591, declares that IGNATIUS desired that the form of government in his Society should be MONARCHICAL, and that every thing should be decided by the will of the General alone. One of the first privileges that IGNATIUS sought from the Pope was, that his disciples should not be com

pelled to take part in the public service of the Church *: in a word, in the privileges obtained by the Jesuits, we observe merely a plan formed with address, and dictated by ambition, not only to establish an absolute monarchy in the Society, but to raise the Society to the monarchy of the whole world, in subjecting every other authority to itself.

No sooner had IGNATIUS obtained the approbation of his Institution, than he spread his companions over the whole world. LAINEZ had already penetrated to the Court of the Emperor CHARLES V. †: he was even employed to negotiate the marriage of the daughter of the King of Portugal with PHILIP II. the son of that Emperor, and he accompanied the new Queen into Spain. He thus opened that kingdom to his Society; and it is certain that the Jesuits, having attached themselves to PHILIP II. succeeded at last in obtaining for him the crown of Portugal.

IGNATIUS and his companions had promised the Pope, in their Petitions of 1540 and 1543, to fight under his standard; to be his soldiers, as they were those of God; and to obey him in all things. PAUL III. in consequence, loaded them with favors: he sent LAINEZ, and SALMERON, to the Council of Trent, and LE JAY went there also in the character of Theologian to the Bishop of Augsburgh.

The remarkable protection afforded them by the Pope, and the zeal displayed by them against the Protestants, induced many Princes to admit them into their States, and to assign

them establishments.

In 1540, when they presented their petitions to PAUL III. they only appeared in the number of ten. In 1543 they were not more than twenty-four. In 1545 they had only ten Houses but in 1549 they had two Provinces; one in Spain, and the other in Portugal, and twenty-two Houses: and at

*See Bull of PAUL III. dated 27th of September, 1540: " Teneantur "tamen singuli privatim ac particulariter, et non communiter ad dis "cendum officium."

+ See Histoire des Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus.

380 MELCHIOR CANO'S PREDICTION AS TO THE JESUITS.

the death of IGNATIUS in 1556, they had twelve large Pro vinces. In 1608 RIBADENEIRA reckoned 29 Provinces, and two vice Provinces, 21 Houses of Profession, 293 Colleges, 33 Houses of Probation, 93 other residences, and 10,581 Jesuits. In the Catalogue printed at Rome in 1629 are found 35 Provinces, 2 vice Provinces, 33 Houses of Profession, 578 Colleges, 48 Houses of Probation, 88 Seminaries, 160 Residences, 106 Missions, and, in all, 17,655 Jesuits, of whom 7870 were Priests*. At last (according to the calculation of Father JOUVENCY) they had in 1710, 24 Houses of Profession, 59 Houses of Probation, 340 Residences, 612 Colleges, of which above 80 were in France, 200 Missions, 157 Seminaries and Boarding Houses, and 19,998 Jesuits!

When they thought to establish themselves at Salamanca in 1548 †, MELCHIOR CANO, a Dominican distinguished for his learning and piety, perceived some unfortunate presages which appeared to threaten the Romish Church with the greatest evils, and publicly declared, that he saw in the Society" the marks which the Apostle had assigned to the fol"lowers of Antichrist;" and when TURRIAN, one of his friends who had become a Jesuit, besought him to abstain from persecuting the Order, and alledged the approbation which the Holy See had conceded, he only replied, that “he "thought himself obliged to warn the people as he did, in "order that they might not suffer themselves to be seduced."

The authority of MELCHIOR CANO made a great impression upon the inhabitants of Salamanca: the Jesuits were pointed out and driven away: they would no longer confide to them the education of their youth, nor the instruction of the religious: in a word, the Magistrates, in concert with the University, determined to banish them from the city as a corrupt race §.

* See the Memorial of the University of Paris to the King in 1724. + See Continuation of Fleury, Vol. xxix. lib. 145.

See Morale Pratique, Vol. i. Preface and first Chapter.

§ See Histoire des Religieux de la Comp, de Jesus, 1. ii. n. 61.