08-14-2026, 06:34 AM
PART SECOND.
XXII. About the Jesuits.
— Calvin looked upon the members of the Company of Jesus as his most deadly enemies, and said that it was necessary to get rid of them. In his usual impudent style he wrote: "They must be destroyed, and if it cannot be done quietly, they must be chased away, or crushed under the weight of falsehoods and calumnies." Jesuitas vero qui se maxime nobis opponunt, aut necandi, aut, si hoc commode fieri non potest, ejiciendi, aut certe mendaciis et calumniis opprimendi sunt.
The children of Calvin, and, in later times, the followers of Voltaire, have most piously and most faithfully taken up the cry, and have been so industrious, and have lied so skilfully, have so terribly slandered the Jesuits, that they have succeeded in making a number of people believe that those holy priests are only impostors, hypocrites, villains, conspirators, traitors, obscurantists, assassins, perverse and dangerous men.
Is it necessary to assert that the Jesuits are nothing of the kind? They are grave and admirable religious people, burning with zeal, indefatigable in the service of the Church and of souls, always ready to help a good work. They are in the Church a chosen troop. Protestants and infidels know it well. Hence they detest them, and have been heaping on them every kind of calumny for the last three hundred years, with a will, and with all their power.
I have at command a mass of eulogies bestowed on the Jesuits by Protestants whose partiality in their favor cannot be suspected. But I will only quote the spirited as well as most conclusive testimony of Henry IV. To the Parliament and to the University of Paris, who had charged the Jesuit Fathers with all the crimes, for which they have been constantly and perseveringly traduced ever since, he replied: —
"I thank you for the care which you take in behalf of my person and of my State. You say, the Sorbonne has condemned the Jesuits; but it was done, as in your case, before it had known them; and if the old Sorbonne did not act from jealousy, the new one has improved on the old, and boasts of it.
"You say that the most learned among the members of your Parliament have learned nothing of them; if the most learned are the oldest among you, it is true, for they have made their studies before the Jesuits were known in France. If the best studies are made among you, how does it happen, that, in consequence of their absence, your university is become deserted, and that students flock, in spite of your orders, to Douay, to Pont-à-Mousson, and to places out of the kingdom?
"Again you say, that they draw the youth of fine disposition and make choice of the best: for this I think the more of them. Do we not choose the best of soldiers to fight our battles?
"You say, they come in the best way they can. So does everybody; and have I not entered my kingdom the best way I could? At the same time we must acknowledge that they are possessed of an admirable patience, and I, for one, admire it, for with patience and good life they achieve everything.
"You say, that they are great sticklers for their institute; that is just what will preserve them. Thus I would change none of their rules, and thus I wish them to keep them.
"As for the ecclesiastics, who find fault with them, it is the old story of ignorance assailing learning, and I know very well that when I spoke of re-establishing them, two kinds of people particularly opposed me; those who belong to the so-called reformed religion and ecclesiastics of dubious morals. Just what made me think more of them."
The Jesuits have always been persecuted and will always be. Their founder has besought for them, on his death-bed, the crown promised by the Lord in his sermon of the mountain, touching the eighth beatitude, — "Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice's sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly for my sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven." — (Matt. v. 10, etc.)
There you have the history of the Company of Jesus written in advance of its existence. The special hatred with which heretics and infidels have always persecuted its members is their best eulogy.
XXII. About the Jesuits.
— Calvin looked upon the members of the Company of Jesus as his most deadly enemies, and said that it was necessary to get rid of them. In his usual impudent style he wrote: "They must be destroyed, and if it cannot be done quietly, they must be chased away, or crushed under the weight of falsehoods and calumnies." Jesuitas vero qui se maxime nobis opponunt, aut necandi, aut, si hoc commode fieri non potest, ejiciendi, aut certe mendaciis et calumniis opprimendi sunt.
The children of Calvin, and, in later times, the followers of Voltaire, have most piously and most faithfully taken up the cry, and have been so industrious, and have lied so skilfully, have so terribly slandered the Jesuits, that they have succeeded in making a number of people believe that those holy priests are only impostors, hypocrites, villains, conspirators, traitors, obscurantists, assassins, perverse and dangerous men.
Is it necessary to assert that the Jesuits are nothing of the kind? They are grave and admirable religious people, burning with zeal, indefatigable in the service of the Church and of souls, always ready to help a good work. They are in the Church a chosen troop. Protestants and infidels know it well. Hence they detest them, and have been heaping on them every kind of calumny for the last three hundred years, with a will, and with all their power.
I have at command a mass of eulogies bestowed on the Jesuits by Protestants whose partiality in their favor cannot be suspected. But I will only quote the spirited as well as most conclusive testimony of Henry IV. To the Parliament and to the University of Paris, who had charged the Jesuit Fathers with all the crimes, for which they have been constantly and perseveringly traduced ever since, he replied: —
"I thank you for the care which you take in behalf of my person and of my State. You say, the Sorbonne has condemned the Jesuits; but it was done, as in your case, before it had known them; and if the old Sorbonne did not act from jealousy, the new one has improved on the old, and boasts of it.
"You say that the most learned among the members of your Parliament have learned nothing of them; if the most learned are the oldest among you, it is true, for they have made their studies before the Jesuits were known in France. If the best studies are made among you, how does it happen, that, in consequence of their absence, your university is become deserted, and that students flock, in spite of your orders, to Douay, to Pont-à-Mousson, and to places out of the kingdom?
"Again you say, that they draw the youth of fine disposition and make choice of the best: for this I think the more of them. Do we not choose the best of soldiers to fight our battles?
"You say, they come in the best way they can. So does everybody; and have I not entered my kingdom the best way I could? At the same time we must acknowledge that they are possessed of an admirable patience, and I, for one, admire it, for with patience and good life they achieve everything.
"You say, that they are great sticklers for their institute; that is just what will preserve them. Thus I would change none of their rules, and thus I wish them to keep them.
"As for the ecclesiastics, who find fault with them, it is the old story of ignorance assailing learning, and I know very well that when I spoke of re-establishing them, two kinds of people particularly opposed me; those who belong to the so-called reformed religion and ecclesiastics of dubious morals. Just what made me think more of them."
The Jesuits have always been persecuted and will always be. Their founder has besought for them, on his death-bed, the crown promised by the Lord in his sermon of the mountain, touching the eighth beatitude, — "Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice's sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly for my sake. Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven." — (Matt. v. 10, etc.)
There you have the history of the Company of Jesus written in advance of its existence. The special hatred with which heretics and infidels have always persecuted its members is their best eulogy.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre