Note 382 — Chapter XIII

The difficulty in believing these stories does not arise from what we know of the moral character of the Jesuits, but only from their reputation for cleverness, and from what we know of the shrewdness of the Quakers. The Quakers were not likely to be so deceived by the Jesuits, and the Jesuits were not likely to adopt a scheme of action which promised so little success. But the Provincial Letters of Pascal, written during the Protectorate, prove that Jesuit morality placed no bar in the way of such dishonest intrigues.