They have been reproached, in the six thousand volumes that have been written against them, with their lax morality, which has not, however, been more lax than that of the Capuchins; and with their doctrine2 relating to the safety of the person of kings; a doctrine which after all is not to be compared with the horn-handled knife of James Clement3; nor with the prepared host, the sprinkled wafer, which so well answered the purpose of Ange de Montepulciano, another Jacobin, and which poisoned the emperor Henry VII.
It is not versatile4 grace which has been their ruin, nor the fraudulent bankruptcy5 of the reverend Father Lavalette, prefect of the apostolic missions. A whole order has not been expelled from France and Spain and the two Sicilies, because that order contained a single bankrupt. Nor was it affected6 by the odious7 deviations8 of the Jesuit Guyot-Desfontaines, or the Jesuit Fréron, or the reverend father Marsy, so injurious, in the latter instance, to the youthful and high-born victim. The public refused to attend these Greek and Latin imitations of Anacreon and Horace.
What is it then that was their ruin? — pride. What, it may be asked by some, were the Jesuits prouder than any other monks9? Yes; and so much so that they procured10 a lettre de cachet against an ecclesiastic11 for calling them monks. One member of the society, called Croust, more brutal12 than the rest, a brother of the confessor of the second dauphiness, was absolutely, in my presence, going to beat the son of M. de Guyot, afterwards king’s advocate (prêteur-royal) at Strasburg, merely for saying he would go to see him in his convent.
It is perfectly14 incredible with what contempt they considered every university where they had not been educated, every book which they had not written, every ecclesiastic who was not “a man of quality.” Of this I have myself, times without number, been a witness. They express themselves in the following language, in their libel entitled “It is Time to Speak Out”: “Should we condescend15 even to speak to a magistrate16 who says the Jesuits are proud and ought to be humbled17?” They were so proud that they would not suffer any one to blame their pride!
Whence did this hateful pride originate? From Father Guinard’s having been hanged? which is literally18 true.
It must be remarked that after the execution of that Jesuit under Henry IV., and after the banishment19 of the society from the kingdom, they were recalled only on the indispensable condition that one Jesuit should always reside at court, who should be responsible for all the rest. Coton was the person who thus became a hostage at the court of Henry IV.; and that excellent monarch20, who was not without his little stratagems21 of policy, thought to conciliate the pope by making a hostage of his confessor.
From that moment every brother of the order seemed to feel as if he had been raised to be king’s confessor. This place of first spiritual physician became a department of the administration under Louis XIII., and more so still under Louis XIV. The brother Vadblé, valet de chambre of Father La Chaise, granted his protection to the bishops22 of France; and Father Letellier ruled with a sceptre of iron those who were very well disposed to be so ruled. It was impossible that the greater part of the Jesuits should not be puffed23 up by the consequence and power to which these two members of their society had been raised, and that they should not become as insolent24 as the lackeys25 of M. Louvois. There have been among them, certainly, men of knowledge, eloquence26, and genius; these possessed27 some modesty28, but those who had only mediocrity of talent or acquirement were tainted29 with that pride which generally attaches to mediocrity and to the pedantry30 of a college.
From the time of Father Garasse almost all their polemical works have been pervaded31 with an indecent and scornful arrogance32 which has roused the indignation of all Europe. This arrogance frequently sank into the most pitiful meanness; so that they discovered the extraordinary secret of being objects at once of envy and contempt. Observe, for example, how they expressed themselves of the celebrated33 Pasquier, advocate-general of the chamber34 of accounts:
“Pasquier is a mere13 porter, a Parisian varlet, a second-rate showman and jester, a journeyman retailer35 of ballads36 and old stories, a contemptible37 hireling, only fit to be a lackey’s valet, a scrub, a disgusting ragamuffin, strongly suspected of heresy38, and either heretical or much worse, a libidinous39 and filthy40 satyr, a master-fool by nature, in sharp, in flat, and throughout the whole gamut41, a three-shod fool, a fool double-dyed, a fool in grain, a fool in every sort of folly42.”
They afterwards polished their style; but pride, by becoming less gross, only became the more revolting.
Everything is pardoned except pride; and this accounts for the fact that all the parliaments in the kingdom, the members of which had the greater part of them been disciples43 of the Jesuits, seized the first opportunity of effecting their annihilation; and the whole land rejoiced in their downfall.
So deeply was the spirit of pride rooted in them that it manifested itself with the most indecent rage, even while they were held down to the earth by the hand of justice, and their final sentence yet remained to be pronounced. We need only read the celebrated memorial already mentioned, entitled “It is Time to Speak Out,” printed at Avignon in 1763, under the assumed name of Anvers. It begins with an ironical44 petition to the persons holding the court of parliament. It addresses them with as much superiority and contempt as could be shown in reprimanding a proctor’s clerk. The illustrious M. de Montclar, procureur-général, the oracle45 of the Parliament of Provence, is continually treated as “M. Ripert,” and rebuked46 with as much consequence and authority as a mutinous47 and ignorant scholar by a professor in his chair. They pushed their audacity48 so far as to say that M. de Montclar “blasphemed” in giving an account of the institution of the Jesuits.
In their memorial, entitled “All Shall be Told,” they insult still more daringly the Parliament of Metz, and always in the style of arrogance and dictation derived49 from the schools.
They have retained this pride even in the very ashes to which France and Spain have now reduced them. From the bottom of those ashes the serpent, scotched50 as it has been, has again raised its hostile head. We have seen a contemptible creature, of the name of Nonnotte, set himself up for a critic on his masters; and, although possessing merely talent enough for preaching to a mob in the churchyard, discoursing51 with all the ease of impudence52 about things of which he has not the slightest notion. Another insolent member of the society, called Patouillet, dared, in the bishop’s mandates53, to insult respectable citizens and officers of the king’s household, whose very lackeys would not have permitted him to speak to them.
One of the things on which they most prided themselves, was introducing themselves into the houses of the great in their last illness, as ambassadors of God, to open to them the gates of heaven, without their previously54 passing through purgatory55. Under Louis XIV. it was considered as having a bad aspect, it was unfashionable and discreditable, to die without having passed through the hands of a Jesuit; and the wretch56, immediately after the fatal scene had closed, would go and boast to his devotees that he had just been converting a duke and peer, who, without his protection, would have been inevitably57 damned.
The dying man might say: “By what right, you college excrement58, do you intrude59 yourself on me in my dying moments? Was I ever seen to go to your cells when any of you had the fistula or gangrene, and were about to return your gross and unwieldy bodies to the earth? Has God granted your soul any rights over mine? Do I require a preceptor at the age of seventy? Do you carry the keys of Paradise at your girdle? You dare to call yourself an ambassador of God; show me your patent and if you have none, let me die in peace. No Benedictine, Chartreux, or Premonstrant, comes to disturb my dying moments; they have no wish to erect60 a trophy61 to their pride upon the bed of our last agony; they remain peacefully in their cells; do you rest quietly in yours; there can be nothing in common between you and me.”
A comic circumstance occurred on a truly mournful occasion, when an English Jesuit, of the name of Routh, eagerly strove to possess himself of the last hour of the great Montesquieu. “He came,” he said, “to bring back that virtuous62 soul to religion;” as if Montesquieu had not known what religion was better than a Routh; as if it had been the will of God that Montesquieu should think like a Routh! He was driven out of the chamber, and went all over Paris, exclaiming, “I have converted that celebrated man; I prevailed upon him to throw his ‘Persian Letters’ and his ‘Spirit of Laws’ into the fire.” Care was taken to print the narrative63 of the conversion64 of President Montesquieu by the reverend father Routh in the libel entitled “The Anti-Philosophic Dictionary.”
Another subject of pride and ambition with the Jesuits was making missions to various cities, just as if they had been among Indians or Japanese. They would oblige the whole magistracy to attend them in the streets; a cross was borne before them, planted in the principal public places; they dispossessed the resident clergy65; they became complete masters of the city. A Jesuit of the name of Aubert performed one of these missions to Colmar, and compelled the advocate-general of the sovereign council to burn at his feet his copy of “Bayle,” which had cost him no less than fifty crowns. For my own part, I acknowledge that I would rather have burned brother Aubert himself. Judge how the pride of this Aubert must have swelled66 with this sacrifice as he boasted of it to his comrades at night, and as he exultingly67 wrote the account of it to his general.
O monks, monks! be modest, as I have already advised you; be moderate, if you wish to avoid the calamities68 impending69 over you.
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1
discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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versatile
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| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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bankruptcy
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| n.破产；无偿付能力 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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8
deviations
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| 背离，偏离( deviation的名词复数 )； 离经叛道的行为 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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ecclesiastic
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| n.教士，基督教会；adj.神职者的，牧师的，教会的 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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13
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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14
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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condescend
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| v.俯就，屈尊；堕落，丢丑 | |
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magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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humbled
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| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
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18
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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stratagems
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| n.诡计，计谋( stratagem的名词复数 )；花招 | |
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bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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23
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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24
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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lackeys
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| n.听差( lackey的名词复数 )；男仆（通常穿制服）；卑躬屈膝的人；被待为奴仆的人 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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29
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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30
pedantry
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| n.迂腐，卖弄学问 | |
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31
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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retailer
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| n.零售商(人) | |
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36
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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38
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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libidinous
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| adj.淫荡的 | |
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40
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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41
gamut
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| n.全音阶，(一领域的)全部知识 | |
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42
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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43
disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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44
ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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45
oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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46
rebuked
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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48
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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49
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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50
scotched
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| v.阻止( scotch的过去式和过去分词 )；制止（车轮）转动；弄伤；镇压 | |
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51
discoursing
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| 演说（discourse的现在分词形式） | |
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52
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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53
mandates
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| 托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式） | |
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54
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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55
purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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56
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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57
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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58
excrement
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| n.排泄物，粪便 | |
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59
intrude
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| vi.闯入；侵入；打扰，侵扰 | |
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60
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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61
trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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62
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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63
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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64
conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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65
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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66
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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67
exultingly
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| 兴高采烈地，得意地 | |
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68
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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