Front matter (continued 4)

Reflecting people, who read of the immense multitudes converted to Christianity under his eloquent preaching, not only at Goa, but in other parts of India, will naturally wonder how all this could have occurred when the natives did not understand his language, nor he theirs! But the Jesuits have no difficulty on that score—nor, indeed, on any other—when the simple invention of a miracle will serve their purpose. Xavier became as famous as Loyola in this respect. Butler represents him as having "baptized ten thousand Indians with his own hand in one month," and "sometimes a whole village" in a single day; and as "having preached to five or six thousand persons together," but without stating in what language he preached. Seeming, however, to anticipate that there might be some to inquire how much of real Christianity there was in these professed conversions, and how he could have preached with so much effect to those whose language he could not speak and who could not understand his, he endeavors to remove the difficulty—evidently following the Jesuit story—by declaring that, while in India, "God first communicated to him the gift of tongues," so that "he spoke very well the language of those barbarians without having learned it, and had no need of an interpreter when he instructed them!"[84] It is impossible now to decide how this statement originated. Xavier reported only to Loyola—not to the pope or the Church—and whatsoever was circulated in Europe to aid the cause of the Jesuits, and to gain them popularity on account of the success of their missions, was derived from him. But whether it originated with Xavier or Loyola, or was invented after the death of both, neither the repetition of it now, nor its recent appearance in an authoritative ecclesiastical volume, published and extensively circulated in the United States, can relieve it from the suspicion of a fabulous origin.

During the brief stay of Xavier at Goa, he availed himself of the opportunity of setting an example which the Jesuits of every subsequent period have been prompt to imitate—an example which gives practical interpretation to the Jesuit vow of "extreme poverty." The Franciscan monks had erected a seminary, where they taught the native youths at least the rudiments of a Christian education. But Xavier was not satisfied with this, having manifestly conceived the idea, still maintained by the Jesuits, that the cause of education should be intrusted solely to them, on account of their superiority over all others, including every religious order. Influenced presumably by this consideration alone, he conceived a plan of having the Franciscan seminary turned over to him, with the view of converting it into a Jesuit college. Claiming that he was a more immediate and responsible representative of the Church than any of the monastic orders, inasmuch as the brief of the pope conferred special missionary prerogatives upon him, he succeeded in effecting his purpose by inducing the Franciscans to transfer the building to him. Whereupon the Franciscans were left to engage in such other methods as they could to minister to the Portuguese Christians and convert the natives, whilst Xavier was permitted to establish his Jesuit college, so that whatsoever renown should follow the Indian missions might inure to the benefit of the Jesuits, and not to that of the monastic orders. The Jesuits have never since then lost sight of this idea or failed to profit by it, always taking care in making up the history of these missions to place their society in the front and the monastic orders in the background, notwithstanding the latter preceded them in India. They seem disinclined to allow the least credit to any of the missionary agencies which the Church had been accustomed to employ.

Having obtained possession of the Franciscan seminary at Goa, Xavier decided that the building should be improved, so as to impress the simple natives with the superiority of the Jesuits over the monks. To an ordinary mind this would appear to be a difficult thing to accomplish, inasmuch as it is not probable that voluntary contributions could have been procured in such a community. But to Xavier it was easy to overcome so trivial a difficulty as this, as it always has been to the Jesuits, without finding the least impediment in the vow of "extreme poverty." All he had to do was to employ the Portuguese troops stationed at Goa "in pulling down the heathen temples in the neighborhood of Goa, and appropriating their very considerable property, for the use and benefit of the new college."[85] Admirable strategy! The poor natives were powerless to resist the Portuguese troops with arms in their hands, and were compelled to stand by in silence and see their property despoiled without compensation, all under the pretense that "the greater glory of God" required it, when, in fact, it was prompted by Jesuit ambition. Xavier must have felt gratified at his inexpensive mode of improving his new college, and Loyola undoubtedly rejoiced when the fact was reported to him. The former, therefore, having so successfully occupied the missionary field at Goa by this display of Jesuit power to the natives, and by reducing the Franciscan monks to inferiority, hastened to other parts of India, to carry on the work he had begun under such flattering auspices.

He proceeded to the coast of Malabar, where the missionaries previously sent from Goa, under the authority and within the jurisdiction of that episcopal see, had baptized a large number of the natives, whom they claimed to have been converted to Christianity under the methods employed by them. But in order to make it appear that these missionaries were inefficient and incompetent, the Jesuits pretend that these professed converts still "retained their superstitions and vices,"[86] and that it was absolutely necessary they should be brought under the influence of Xavier. The purpose of this, at that time, was to prove to the Christian world that the Church and the papacy had failed to accomplish any good missionary results through the agency of the monks, and that the Jesuits were absolutely indispensable. In this way it was hoped, doubtless, to overcome the prejudice existing against the society in Europe. Therefore, Xavier is represented as having saved the Malabar converts from relapsing into heathenism, and increased the number of natives who submitted to baptism. Whilst all this is spoken in his praise, it is quite certain, from the most favorable accounts, that they entertain but little, if any, just conception of the ceremony of baptism, or, indeed, of any of the fundamental principles of Christianity.

The first effort of Xavier upon the Malabar Coast was at Cape Comorin, in a village "full of idolaters," to whom he preached; but as they were unable to understand what he said, they remained unmoved, having been probably attracted, like the people of Goa, by his bell-ringing in the streets. Why the "gift of tongues" was then withheld from him is not easy to determine, unless it was that he might be furnished an opportunity of impressing the ignorant natives with sentiments of awe by performing a miracle. At all events, Butler records what happened in these words: "A woman who had been three days in the pains of childbirth, without being eased by any remedies or prayers of the Brahmins, was immediately delivered, and recovered upon being instructed in the faith, and baptized by St. Francis [Xavier], as he himself relates in a letter to St. Ignatius [Loyola]." How she was instructed in the faith is, of course, not explained, it being left to the imagination of the reader to conceive by what extraordinary process this ignorant woman was instructed in the Christian faith, so that she could be rightfully baptized into the Church, when she did not understand the language in which she was addressed. If she even realized that her safe delivery and instantaneous restoration were occasioned by his intervention, there was no possible mode of conveying to her mind the idea that it was God's work and not Xavier's, for there was no word in any of the languages of India signifying the Deity in the Christian sense. The whole story is not only preposterous, but puerile. But it bears the unmistakable stamp of Jesuitism, like others of the same general character. For example, it is seriously recorded by the same author, that after the happening of this event, "the chief persons of the country listened to his doctrine, and heartily embraced the faith." He preached to those who had never before heard of Christ, "and so great were the multitude which he baptized, that sometimes, by the bare fatigue of administering that sacrament, he was scarcely able to move his arm, according to the account which he gave to his brethren in Europe." He healed the sick by baptism, and where his presence was impracticable, he sent a neophyte to touch them with a cross, when, if they signified a desire to be baptized, they were restored to health. In addition, it is also said that he brought back to life four persons who were dead, during the fifteen months he remained upon the Malabar Coast.[87]

He had preached at Travancore, near Comorin, where he was more favored by having the "gift of tongues" given to him, so that he could speak in one language as well as another. Thus endowed, as the Jesuits insist, with divine power, he dispersed and drove out of the country "a tribe of savages and public robbers," who were in search of plunder, by approaching them with a crucifix in his hand, although they had never heard of a crucifix before, and had no means of knowing what it signified. When the people of a village near Travancore remained uninfluenced by his preaching—an event not at all wonderful considering their utter ignorance of Christianity—he is represented as having again resorted to a miracle, which was the never-failing Jesuit resource. He had a grave opened, which contained a body interred the day before, and, after putrefaction had commenced, restored it to life and "perfect health." Near the same place he also brought back to life a young man whose corpse he met on the way to the grave. "These miracles," says Butler, "made so great an impression upon the people that the whole kingdom of Travancore was subjected to Christ in a few months, except the king and some of his courtiers."[88]

Every enlightened mind will reject such tales as pure fictions—as absolutely incredible. They trifle with serious things, and their inventors act in imitation of those who make merchandise of human souls. It directly impeaches the wisdom of Providence to pretend that he permitted miracles to be performed in his name—even the dead to be raised to life—to influence the destiny of an ignorant heathen population utterly unable to appreciate the character and teachings of Christ, whilst, at the same time, he permitted almost every variety of vice and corruption to prevail among the intelligent populations of Europe, and to fester about the very heart of the papacy itself.

The accounts of what was done by Xavier in the various parts of India are of the same general character as the foregoing, the chief variations being in the kind of miracles performed by him. To minds capable of subjecting them to the test of reason and common sense, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that they were either invented by Xavier himself, and sent to Europe to aid Loyola in giving popularity to the Jesuits, or were made up by them after his death for the same purpose. In point of fact, his whole claim to be considered as the "Apostle of the Indies" rests upon a flimsy and unsubstantial foundation. This is especially so, in view of the fact that the multitudes he pretended to convert were turned into professing Christians by the simple ceremony of baptism. Some of them may possibly have been able to repeat the invocations "Our Father" and "Hail Mary," but without any intelligent conception of the difference between the one Omnipotent God of the Christians and the many gods they had been accustomed to worship, or of the meaning of the words uttered to them by Xavier, or of the sacraments he administered, or of any of the attributes of the Deity, or of a single essential principle in the Christian Creed. Nevertheless, other accounts are added, whereby he is represented as having visited other places upon the Indian coast, where like results are said to have been produced, until, after having remained about seven years in the East Indies, he went to Japan to bring that idolatrous nation under the same influences, leaving the bulk of his Indian converts to succumb to the dominion of the Brahmins, and sink back into heathenism. He did not seem to realize that true conversion to the Christian faith involves the sympathetic emotions of the heart, the intelligent action of the mind, and that without these, no signs, or genuflexions, or empty words spoken merely from the lips, can give substantial value to the profession of it. A knowledge of the manual of arms does not impart to a coward the bravery of a true soldier, nor does the repetition of a few familiar words convert a parrot into an intelligent being. And not a whit more can a heathen, who never heard of Christ, be converted into a Christian by any form of words, or by any bodily gestures, unless his mind has been touched and his heart stirred by some knowledge of what and who God is, and of the wisdom of his providences displayed in the creation and government of the universe.

One would suppose that the "gift of tongues," when once conferred upon Xavier, remained with him, inasmuch as he could not convey his thoughts to the multitudes of people in any other way. But, strange to say, it was otherwise. This miraculous gift was a mere "transient favor,"[89] conferred only for a season, during his intercourse with some of the heathen populations of India, and withdrawn as miraculously as it had been given. What strange infatuation it must be to accept it as true that, after he had been divinely endowed with the faculty of preaching to the people of India in their own languages, he should have entered upon his mission to Japan without any knowledge whatsoever of the Japanese language! Although that language is one of the most difficult in the world, and wholly unlike any spoken then or now in Europe, yet that fact was of trifling consequence to such a man as the Jesuits represent Xavier to have been. He undertook this mission as if nothing were in the way, relying, as may be inferred from the Jesuit accounts, upon his miraculous powers to convert to Christianity an idolatrous people he had never seen, and of whom the world at that time knew but little. It is solemnly averred that in forty days (!) he acquired a sufficient knowledge of the Japanese language to translate into it the Apostles' Creed, and an exposition of its meaning by himself. With this he began to preach, and "converted a great number." Still the intensity of his zeal made him impatient, and, being unwilling to await the slow process of appealing to the intelligence of the Japanese people, he resorted again to the familiar expedient of miracles, which had accomplished so much in India. Accordingly, we are told that, "by his blessing, a child's body, which was swelled and deformed, was made straight and beautiful; and, by his prayers, a leper was healed, and a pagan young maid of quality, that had been dead a whole day, was raised to life."[90] The Jesuits have never hesitated to assign to Xavier, as they did to Loyola, the performance of some miracle, when anything had to be done that could be accomplished in no other way. The aggregate number of miracles attributed to them exceed all that are recorded in the Gospels. And neither Xavier nor Loyola ever hesitated to avow their authority to perform them, in verification of the Jesuit doctrine that God had transferred his divine attributes to each of them.

Such recitals are calculated to tax the patience of enlightened readers of this day; but without them it is not possible to obtain accurate knowledge of the record the Jesuits have made up to inform the world of the glorious achievements of their society, and to keep out of view the enormities for which they have been, in the course of their history, condemned by every Christian nation and people of Europe. They are necessary also to a proper understanding why Xavier was beatified and canonized; for these and other kindred fables were held to be sufficiently attested to cause his name to be enrolled among the saints.

The difficulty of conveying to the minds of the Japanese people any proper idea of God, when their language contained no word to express it, has already been suggested with regard to India. He told them, says Butler, that "Deos" meant God. But it is impossible that this or any other single word can so signify the Deity as to convey to an ignorant, idolatrous people any just conception of the Creator of the world, or of his Divine attributes, or of their own responsibilities to him either in life or death. But the wonderful exploits of Xavier were not balked at this or any other point. The "gift of tongues" had once been given to him, whereby he was enabled to preach to any people without any previous knowledge of their language. This gift, however, as we have seen, was only a "transient favor," granted for a season, or some special occasion, and taken away. And, notwithstanding, in consequence of this, it had become necessary that he should learn the Japanese language in forty days, so as to be able to speak and write it, it still became necessary also that he should again have the power conferred upon him to understand and speak all languages. Consequently, we learn from Butler that "at Amanguchi God restored to St. Francis the gift of tongues; for he preached often to the Chinese merchants who traded there, in their mother tongue, which he had never learned."[91] To appreciate the character of this statement, it should be borne in mind that, at that time, he had never visited China. And it is proper to observe that, notwithstanding this providential preparation for missionary labors in that country, he never did visit there.

It converts serious things into mockery to pretend that God conferred this gift upon Xavier in order to fit him specially for the conversion of the Chinese, and yet that he so disposed his providences with reference to him that he was never able to enter that empire, or to hold direct intercourse with its people. If it had been the Divine decree that he should be set apart for this great work by this miraculous preparation, no earthly impediment would have been likely to arrest him, or keep him out of China; for God's fixed purposes are not subject to fluctuation to suit the exigencies of human affairs. But, notwithstanding he made several earnest efforts to get there, he signally failed in all of them. He returned from Japan to India, and, after remaining a short time at Goa, resorted to the expedient of attempting an entrance into China by indirection, because the authorities there were inimical to the Portuguese. He conceived the idea of procuring the organization of a diplomatic mission, and having himself attached to it, so that, by this means, he could enter the country. This plan having failed, he endeavored to accomplish his object "secretly," says Butler, making the effort to be landed somewhere upon the Chinese coast, "where no houses were in view." Every step he took, however, proved abortive, and he died before reaching China, thus leaving wholly unaccomplished what the Jesuits allege was the foreordained purpose of Providence.

The death of Xavier occurred in 1552, and his remains were taken to Goa about three months after, when, according to the Jesuit account, his flesh "was found ruddy and fresh-colored, like a man who is in sweet repose!" When it was cut, the blood ran! And so necessary is it deemed by the Jesuits that his body shall appear to have been absolutely incorruptible—as an argument to prove that their society is under the special protection and guardianship of God—it is seriously affirmed that "the holy corpse exhaled an odor so fragrant and delightful that the most exquisite perfume came nothing near it." When the body reached Malacca, a pestilence then wasting the city, suddenly ceased, the effect alone of its mere presence! It was transported to Goa—"entire, fresh, and still exhaling a sweet odor"—and deposited in the church of the Jesuit college he had dextrously obtained from the Franciscan monks. Upon this occasion we are told that "several blind persons recovered their sight, and others, sick of palsies and other diseases, their health and the use of their limbs!" His relics, by order of the King of Portugal, were visited in 1774—one hundred and ninety-two years after his death—when "the body was found without the least bad smell, and seemed environed with a kind of shining brightness, and the face, hands, breast, and feet had not suffered the least alteration or symptom of corruption!"[92]

In view of the universal experience of mankind and the enlightenment of the present age, it is difficult to treat the foregoing statements seriously, they are so palpably the product of Jesuit imposture. And yet they are published in this country, and recommended as positive truths, by the highest ecclesiastical authority, as if some intelligent providential object would be accomplished by believing them. Notwithstanding, however, that every man of common sense will reject them, they are indispensable to a proper understanding of the methods employed by the Jesuits in setting forth the claims of their society to providential favor. And although the vagaries of the wildest enthusiasts are more credible, because they do not sport with sacred things, their recital puts us in possession of some of the means of unraveling the nets this wonderful society has cunningly woven.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER X.

IN PARAGUAY.

The Jesuits had a fairer and better field for the display of their peculiar characteristics, and for the successful establishment of the principles of their constitution, during the existence of the Government founded by them in Paraguay, than ever fell to the lot of any other society or select body of men. It is not too late to try them by the results they then achieved, so as to assure ourselves of what might reasonably be expected if the modern nations should so far forget themselves as to allow that sad and disastrous experiment to be repeated.

After the Portuguese obtained possession of Brazil, they inaugurated measures necessary to bring the natives under their dominion. The problem was not of easy solution. The Indians had no conception of the principles of international law, which the leading nations had established to justify the subjugation of the weak by the strong, and consequently had to be brought by slow degrees under such influences as should persuade them to believe that their conquerors were benefactors, and not enemies. The pretense of title, based upon the grant of the Pope Alexander VI, was not openly avowed. If it had been, the native population, in all probability, would have united in sufficient numbers to drive the invaders into the sea. Pacific means of some sort had to be employed, so as to delude the multitude of natives into a condition of apparent but false security.

Spain had also acquired possessions in other parts of South America, and the methods of colonization adopted by the two Governments were substantially the same. Charles V of Spain and John III of Portugal were both religious fanatics, and although their chief purpose was to obtain wealth from the mines of America, each of them professed to desire, at the same time, the civilization of the natives. Hence, as this could not be accomplished without the influences of Christianity, all the expeditions sent out by them to the New World were accompanied by ecclesiastics, and were therefore under the patronage and auspices of the Church of Rome. The controlling idea of the period was that the Church and the State should remain united, so that wheresoever the latter should obtain temporal and political control, the former should be constantly present to decide and direct everything pertaining to faith and morals; that is, to keep both the State and the people in obedience to the Church. With these objects in view, missionaries were sent out by the Church with the first Spanish and Portuguese adventurers, and every step was avowedly taken in the name of Christianity. So deeply was this sentiment embedded in every mind that the memory of some favorite saint was perpetuated in the names of nearly all the newly-established cities. These missionaries were taken mainly from the ancient monastic orders—the Dominicans, Franciscans, etc.—and had been regarded by the popes for many years as not only the most faithful, but the most efficient coadjutors of the Church in the work of extending Christianity over the world. We have elsewhere seen that the Jesuits did not sympathize with this belief, and that Loyola had urged upon the pope the necessity of creating his new society upon the express ground that these ancient orders had become both inefficient and corrupt. When the New World, therefore, was about to be opened before them, the followers of Loyola endeavored to seize the occasion to supplant the monkish orders, if possible, and take into their own hands exclusively the dissemination of Christian influences among the native populations. In this respect the Jesuits displayed more zeal for their own success than for that of the Church, and made the cause of Christianity secondary to their own interests. The history of their missions in South America will abundantly show this, as it will also display their insatiable ambition and unparalleled superciliousness.

The first Jesuits were sent to South America by the King of Portugal. They found a large district of country washed by the waters of the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries, which had not been reached by either the Spaniards or the Portuguese, but remained in the exclusive possession of the Indians, who had never felt the influence of European civilization. The natives generally had been treated by the invaders with extreme cruelty, having been often reduced to slavery and forced to submit to a variety of oppressions and indignities. All the resources of the country susceptible of being converted into wealth were seized upon to supply the royal treasuries of the Christian kings who tyrannized over them. The whole history of that period shows that, unless some counteracting influences had been introduced, those who professed to desire the civilization of the natives would, in all probability, have added to the degradation and misery in which they were found when first discovered. The Jesuits desired to apply some corrective, and there is no reason why the sincerity of their first missionaries in this respect should be suspected. It can not be justly charged against them that they were disposed to treat the native populations with cruelty, or to do otherwise than subject them to the influences of the Jesuit system of education and government. Whatsoever faults of management are properly attributable to them—and there are many—are easily traceable to that system itself, which, from its very nature, has always been, and must continue to be, inflexible. Inasmuch as blind and uninquiring obedience to the superior is the most prominent and fundamental principle of the society, everything, in either government or religion or morals, must bend to that, or break. There is no half-way ground—no compromise—nothing but obedience. Everything is reduced to a common level, leaving individuals without the least sense of personal responsibility except to those in authority above them. For these reasons, it is necessary to remember, whilst examining the course and influences of the Jesuits in Paraguay, that whatsoever transpired was in obedience to the command of the superior in Rome, who held no personal intercourse with the natives, and whose animating and controlling purpose was to grasp the entire dominion over the New World in his own hands. It was chargeable to the constitution and organization of the society, which, as already explained, so emphatically embodies the principle of absolute monarchism as to place it necessarily in antagonism with every form of liberal and popular government. If the Government they established in Paraguay, and maintained for one hundred and fifty years, had not been monarchical, it could not have had Jesuit paternity or approval. If, from any cause, at any period of its existence, it had become otherwise by the introduction of popular features, it would have encountered Jesuit resistance. Monarchism and Jesuitism are twin sisters. Popular liberty and Jesuitism can not exist in unity; the former may tolerate the latter, but the latter can not be reconciled without exterminating everything but itself. Whatsoever institutions existed, therefore, in Paraguay whilst the country was under the exclusive dominion of the Jesuits, must be held to have been in precise conformity to the Jesuit constitution, and of such a character as the society would yet establish wheresoever they possessed the power either to frame new institutions or to change existing ones.

The Jesuit idea of exclusiveness and superiority influenced the conduct of their missionaries in Paraguay as elsewhere. But for this, different results might have ensued. If they had been content to recognize the monastic orders as equally important and meritorious as their own in the field of missionary labor, and the ancient machinery of the Church as retaining its capacity for effectiveness in spreading Christianity throughout the world—if, in other words, they had been content to recognize any merit as existing elsewhere than among themselves—the natives might have been subjected to a very different destiny from that which, in the end, overwhelmed them. But they were not permitted, by the nature and character of their order, to entertain any such feelings, or to cherish any ideas of success other than those which promised to inure to their own advancement. Accordingly we find them—as explained by one of their modern defenders of high celebrity—basing their claim to exclusive jurisdiction over the natives of Paraguay upon the express ground that the ecclesiastical influences sent out under the auspices of the Church and the patronage of the Spanish and Portuguese kings, had become injurious rather than beneficial to the natives, in consequence of the most flagrant corruption. In explanation of the course pursued by the Jesuit missionaries, he says: "One of the first experiences of the missioners was, that it was in vain to hope for any permanent fruit among the Indians, unless they were separated from the evil influences of the Europeans, who swarmed into the New World, carrying with them all the vices of the Old, and adding to them the licentiousness and cruelty which the freedom of a new country and the hopes of speedy riches bring with them."[93] This same author also speaks of "the hordes of adventurers who flocked over to the New World, the scum of the great cities of Europe," in order to show that by intercourse with them the natives knew "little more of the Christian name than the vices of those who professed it."[94] To let it be known that "lay adventurers" are not alone referred to, he mentions expressly the "worldly and ambitious ecclesiastics and religious," who were "forgetful of the spirit of their calling, or apostates from their rule."[95] He casts a variety of aspersions upon the characters of the Bishops of Assumption and of Buenos Ayres, and maintains the proposition with earnestness, that if the Indians were allowed to have unrestrained intercourse with the Spaniards, "they would derive the worst consequences from their bad example, which is entirely opposed to the principles of morality."[96]

In this the Jesuits displayed their wonderful astuteness, and it may be supposed that they employed these and other kindred allegations with effect in Spain, inasmuch as they succeeded in obtaining from the king a special "prohibition for Europeans to set foot in" Paraguay, so that they could thereby secure exclusive control of the natives and bring them under Jesuit influences alone, independent of the monastic orders and the ecclesiastical authorities of the Church.[97] This was a great stroke of policy upon their part, because by ignoring the Church, its ecclesiastics, and the monastic orders, they were enabled to assume prerogatives of the most extravagant character, and to hold themselves out to the natives as the only Europeans worthy of obedience and the only true representatives of Christian civilization. Not only, therefore, in the manner of securing the royal approval of their exclusive pretensions, but in the character of the Government established by them, did they exhibit their chief characteristics of ambition, vanity, and superciliousness—characteristics they have never lost.

The Government established by them in Paraguay was essentially monarchical. It could not have been otherwise under the principles of their constitution. Under the false name of a Christian republic, it was, to all intents and purposes, a theocratic State, so constructed as to free it from all European influences except such as emanated from their superior at Rome. All the intercourse they had with the Church and the pope was through him, and whatsoever commands he gave were uninquiringly obeyed by them, without stopping to investigate or concerning themselves in the least to know whether the Church and the pope approved or disapproved them. In order to impress the natives with the idea of their independence and of their superiority over the monastic orders and the Church ecclesiastics, they practiced the most artful means to persuade them to hold no intercourse with either Spaniards or Portuguese, upon the ground that they could not do so without encountering the example of their vices and immoralities. The unsuspecting Indians were easily seduced by acts of kindness, and the result was that, in the course of a brief period, they succeeded in establishing a number of what were called Reductions—or, more properly speaking, villages—with multitudes of Indians assembled about them; the whole aggregating, in the end, several hundred thousand. These constituted the Jesuit State, and were all, by the mere ceremony of baptism, brought under Jesuit dominion. At each Reduction the natives were allowed to select a secular magistracy, with limited and unimportant powers over such temporal affairs as could be intrusted to them without impairing the theocratic feature of the Government. But in order to provide against the possibility of permitting even these few temporal affairs from being conducted independently of them, they adopted the precaution of providing that, before any important decisions were carried into effect, they should obtain their sanction—as "spiritual shepherds." There never was anywhere a more thorough and complete blending of Church and State together.

Although this new State was established under the pretense that it was necessary to protect the natives against the bad influences of the Spaniards and the Portuguese, the approval of it by the King of Spain, Philip III, was obtained by the promise that "every adult must pay him the tribute of one dollar"—a consideration of chief importance with him. Philip IV was equally disposed to favor the Jesuits, presumably for the want of proper information; for it would have required but little investigation at that time to have discovered that the only motive of the Jesuits for securing royal approbation in Europe was that they might ultimately acquire power to plot against European royalty itself when it should stand in the way of their ambition. To show how little obedience was paid to the public authorities of either Spain or Portugal, it is only necessary to observe that each Reduction was governed by a Jesuit father, supported by a vicar and a curate as assistants, but whose chief duty was espionage. This governing father was under the orders of a superior, who presided over a diocese of five or six parishes, the supervision and management of the whole being lodged in the hands of a provincial, who "received his orders direct from the general in Rome."[98] If, therefore, the kings of Spain and Portugal supposed that the Jesuits in Portugal intended to pay fidelity to them, or to either of them, they were deceived—as, in the course of events, they discovered. They obeyed their general in Rome, and him alone.

The praise ought not to be withheld from the Jesuits, that the natives who were thus brought under their influences were better and more kindly treated than those who were compelled to submit to the dominion of Spaniards and Portuguese beyond the limits of Paraguay. They "partook of their labors, of their amusements, of their joys, of their sorrows. They visited daily every house in which lay a sick person, whom they served as the kindest nurse, and to whom they seemed to be ministering genii." By these and other kindnesses they brought the Indians to look upon them with a feeling bordering upon idolatry. But whilst they were friends, they were also sovereigns, and "governed with absolute and unquestioned authority."[99] This was a necessary and indispensable part of their system of government, which embodied the Jesuit idea of a Christian republic. It was in everything pertaining to the management of public affairs an absolute monarchy, with all its powers centered in the general at Rome, whose authority was accepted as equal to that of God, and to whose command obedience was exacted from all.

Apart from this governing authority, universal equality prevailed. The principles of socialism or communism—very much as now understood—governed all the Reductions. Everything necessary to the material comfort and prosperity of the Indians was in common. Each family had a portion of land set apart for cultivation. They also learned trades, and many of them, both men and women, became experts. But the earnings of the whole were deposited in common storehouses at each Reduction, and distributed by the Jesuits in such portions to each individual as necessity required. "Even meat was portioned from the public slaughter-houses in the same way." The surplus produce remaining after these distributions was sent to Europe, and sold or exchanged for wares and merchandise, solely at the discretion of the Jesuits. Everything was conducted in obedience to them, and nothing contrary to their orders was tolerated. Rigid rules of conduct and hours of labor were prescribed, and the violators of them were subject to corporal punishment. Houses of worship, colleges, and palatial residences for the Jesuit fathers, were built by the common labor and at the expense of the common treasury. Suffrage was universal; but "the sanction of the Jesuits was necessary to the validity of the election." In fact, says Nicolini, "the Jesuits substituted themselves for the State or community"[100]—a fact which fully establishes the monarchical and theocratic character of the Government.

In order to teach the confiding Indians that obedience to authority was their chiefest duty, they were subjected to rules of conduct and intercourse which were enforced with the strictest severity. They were watched in everything, the searching eyes of the Jesuits being continually upon them. They constituted, in fact, a state of society reaching the Jesuit ideal completely; that is, docile, tractable, submissive, obedient, without the least real semblance of manhood. Having thus completed their subjugation, energetic measures were adopted to render any change in their condition impossible. For this purpose care was taken to exclude all other than Jesuit influences, and to sow the seeds of disaffection towards everything European, the object being to surround them with a high wall of ignorance and superstition, which no European influences could overleap, and within which their authority would be unbounded. They were instructed that the Spaniards and the Portuguese were their enemies, that the ecclesiastics and monkish missionaries sent over by the Church were unworthy of obedience or imitation, and that the only true religion was that which emanated from their society and had their approval. If these simple-minded people were taught anything about the Church, it was with the view of convincing them that the Jesuits represented all its power, authority, and virtue, and that whatsoever did not conform to their teachings was sinful and heretical. If they were told anything about the pope, it was to represent him as inferior to their general, who was to be regarded by them as the only infallible representative of God upon earth. That all other ideas should be excluded from their minds, they were not permitted to hold any intercourse whatsoever with Europeans; for fear, undoubtedly, they might hear that there was a Church at Rome, and a pope higher than their general. They were not allowed to speak any language but their own, so as to render it impossible to acquire any ideas or opinions except such as could be expressed by means of its limited number of inexpressive words; that is, to keep them entirely and exclusively under Jesuit influences. To sum up the whole, without further detail, the Indians were regarded as minors under guardianship, and in this condition they remained for one hundred and fifty years, without the possibility of social and national development. They were saved, it is true, from the miseries of Portuguese slavery, but kept in such a condition of inferiority and vassalage as unfitted them for independent citizenship. Their limbs were unchained; but their minds were "cabined, cribbed, confined," within bounds too narrow for matured thought, sentiment, or reason.

It would not be fair to say that the first Jesuit missionaries to Paraguay may not have been animated by the desire to improve the condition of the Indians, or to withhold from them the meed of praise justly due for the humanity of their motives. It is undoubtedly true, as already intimated, that they did shield them from many of the cruelties to which they had been subjected under the Spanish and the Portuguese adventurers, who overran large portions of South America in the search after wealth. But it can not be too indelibly impressed upon our minds, in this age, that they acted in strict obedience to the Jesuit system, which permitted no departure from absolute monarchism, and centered all the duties of citizenship in obedience to themselves as the sole representatives of the only authority that was or could be legitimate. And not only did their strict adherence to their system make it necessary for them to hold the Indians in subjugation and treat them as inferior subjects, but it involved them, at last, in collisions with the Spaniards and Portuguese, and obliged them to treat the latter especially as enemies, and to impress this fact upon the minds of the whole Indian population. The consequence of this was to create an independent and rebellious Government within the Portuguese dominions, which necessarily brought the Jesuits in conflict with the legitimate authority of the Portuguese Government. The Jesuits foresaw this, and prepared for it. It is a fair inference from all the contemporaneous facts that they desired it. At all events they subjected the Indians at the Reductions to military training and discipline, so as to be prepared for such emergencies as might arise out of their relations with both the Spaniards and the Portuguese. One would suppose that in a Government so far separated from the rest of the world, and governed by those who professed to be laboring alone for "the greater glory of God," the arts of peace would be chiefly, if not exclusively, cultivated. But the successors of the first Jesuit missionaries thought otherwise. Consequently, besides refusing to allow the Indians any intercourse with the Europeans, they would not permit them even to leave the Reductions without permission, or to receive any impressions except those emanating from themselves, or to do anything not dictated by them. The result was what they designed, that the Indians came to look upon all Europeans, whether ecclesiastic or lay, as enemies, and the Jesuit as their only friends. They readily engaged, therefore, in the manufacture of arms and ammunition, and submitted to military discipline until they became a formidable army, subject, of course, to the command of their Jesuit superiors. The sequel of Jesuit history proves that in all this they were unconsciously creating an antagonism which, in the end, overwhelmed them.

A violent feud sprang up between the Jesuits and the Franciscan monks, which undoubtedly arose out of the claim of superiority and exclusiveness set up and persisted in by the former. It may well be inferred that the Jesuits were chiefly to blame for this feud, for the reason that the Franciscans retained the confidence of the Church authorities, and the Jesuits did not. At all events, however, they were in open enmity with each other, and prosecuted their controversy with an exceeding degree of bitterness upon both sides. A distinguished citizen of the United States, who represented this country as Minister to Paraguay, alluding to this fact, says: "The Franciscan priests in the capital regarded them [the Jesuits] with envy, suspicion, and jealousy. These last fomented the animosity of the people against them, so that Government, priests, and people regarded with favor, rather than otherwise, the destruction of the missions, and the expulsion of their founders."[101] Notwithstanding these hostile relations, however, between the Jesuits and the Franciscans, and the disturbed condition of affairs existing between the former and the Portuguese authorities, neither the pope nor the King of Spain withdrew their patronage entirely from the Jesuits for some years, and not until it was made manifest that they had become an independent power, which might, if not checked, result in complications injurious alike to the Church and the State. But the time arrived, after a while, when it became necessary to impose severe restraints upon their ambition, and to teach them that neither the powers of Church nor State were concentrated in their hands. They were required to learn—what they had seemed not before to have been conscious of—that the authority they exercised in Paraguay was usurped, and that if they desired to continue there as a society, they must submit to be held in proper subordination. Being unable or unwilling to realize this, they invited results which they manifestly had not anticipated.

When the protracted controversy between Spain and Portugal, about the boundaries of their respective possessions in South America, reached an adjustment, it furnished an occasion for testing the obedience of the Jesuits to royal authority. The two Governments, after the usual delay in such matters, came to an amicable understanding, and arranged the boundaries to their mutual satisfaction. It placed a portion of the Jesuit missions under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese, which they had supposed to belong to Spain. The Jesuits refused to submit to this, and inaugurated the necessary measures to resist it, being determined, if they could prevent it, not to submit to the dominion of Portugal. Their preference for Spain was because of the fact that the king of that country was more favorably inclined to them than the Portuguese king. But the history of the controversy justifies the belief that they would not even have submitted to the former unresistingly, inasmuch as it had undoubtedly become their fixed purpose to retain the independence they had long labored to establish, by maintaining their theocratic form of government. They had been so accustomed to autocratic rule over the natives, that they could not become reconciled to the idea of surrendering it to any earthly power. In this instance, however, they encountered an adversary of whose courage and capacity they had not the least conception, and whom they found, in a brief period, capable of inflicting a death-blow upon the society. This was Sebastian Cavalho, Marquis of Pombal, who was the chief counselor of the Portuguese king.

Cavalho—better known as Pombal—and the King of Portugal, were both faithful members of the Roman Church, and conducted the Government in obedience to its requirements. But neither of them was disposed to submit to the dictation of the Jesuits of Paraguay with regard to the question of boundary—which was entirely political—or submit to their rebellion against legitimate authority. Such a question did not admit of compromise or equivocation. It presented a vital issue they could neither avoid nor postpone, without endangering the Government and forfeiting their own self-respect. Consequently, they inaugurated prompt and energetic measures to suppress the threatened insurrection of the Jesuits before it should be permitted to ripen into open and armed resistance. From that time forward the controversy constantly increased in violence. The intense hatred of Pombal by the Jesuits has colored their opinions to such an extent that they deny to him either talents or merit, and, inasmuch as they charge all the ensuing results to him, he is pictured by them more as a monster of iniquity than as a statesman of acknowledged ability. All this, however, should count for nothing in deciding the real merits of the controversy. The whole matter is resolved into this simple proposition—that it was the duty of the Government to vindicate and maintain its own authority in the face of Jesuit opposition. It had nothing to do with the Church, nor the Church with it. It did not involve any question of faith, but was confined solely and entirely to secular and temporal affairs. And if, under these circumstances, Pombal had quietly permitted the Jesuits to defy the Government and consummate their object by successful rebellion against its authority, he would have won from Jesuit pens the brightest and most glowing praise, but his name would have gone into history as the betrayer of his country.

With the foregoing facts impressed upon his mind, the reader will be prepared to appreciate the subsequent events which led to the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the Roman Catholic nations of Europe, and finally to the suppression and abolition of the society, as the only means of defense against its exactions and enormities.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XI.

THE PORTUGUESE AND THE JESUITS.

At the period referred to in the last chapter the Jesuits were held in low esteem everywhere in Europe. They were severely censured, not alone by Government authorities, but by the great body of the Christian people, more especially those who desired to save the Roman Church from their dangerous and baneful influences. The leading Roman Catholic Governments were all incensed against them, and it only required some master spirit, some man of courage and ability, to excite universal indignation against them. Protestants had comparatively little to do with the matter—nothing, indeed, but to make public sentiment somewhat more distinct and emphatic.

Pombal understood thoroughly the character of the adversary he was about to encounter—the adroit artifices which the Jesuits, collectively and individually, were accustomed to practice, and by which they had often succeeded in obtaining assistance from unexpected quarters. Therefore he resolved at the outset not to temporize with them, but to put in operation immediately a series of measures of the most active and energetic character. He may not have known that the other Roman Catholic Governments would unite with that of Portugal, but he must have seen ground for believing that they would, in the general displeasure they exhibited at the conduct of the Jesuits throughout Europe. Howsoever this may have been, he saw plainly his own line of duty toward the Portuguese Government, and had not only the necessary courage, but the ability to pursue it. A royal council was held at the palace of the King of Portugal in 1757, at which he suggested "the imperative necessity of removing the Jesuits from their posts of confessors to the royal family," for the reason that the controversy in South America could not be satisfactorily settled, if at all, so long as they remained in a condition to influence the action and opinions of the king in any degree whatsoever.[102] He knew perfectly well how ingeniously they had wormed themselves into the confidence of kings, so that by becoming their confessors they should not only obtain a knowledge of the secrets of State, but so to influence the policy and action of Governments as to promote their own interests. And like a sagacious and skillful statesman, as he undoubtedly was, he saw at a glance how necessary it was that they should not be permitted to have further access to the king. The Jesuits represent the king as having been unwilling to assent to this proposition; but that is not of the least consequence, because, as they admit, he signed "the decree which excluded all Jesuits from their office of confessors of the court."[103] This was a terrible blow to them—perhaps the first of a serious character they had ever encountered. It was made the more serious by the fact that Portugal was recognized as a thoroughly religious country, and sincerely devoted to the Church of Rome. Whatsoever may have been its immediate effect upon the Jesuits, it left no ground for retreat or equivocation upon either side, but placed the contestants in direct and open hostility, each with drawn swords. From that time forward the conflict, on the part of the Jesuits, was one of life or death, and they fought it with a desperation born of that belief.

To justify itself, and to explain to the European nations the reasons which influenced it, the Portuguese Government caused to be prepared a statement of grievances, wherein the course of the Jesuits "in the Spanish and Portuguese dominions of the New World, and of the war which they had carried on against the armies of the two crowns," were set forth. It is insinuated that Pombal was the author of this pamphlet, but no evidence of that has been produced. It does not matter whether he was or not, inasmuch as it amounted to such an arraignment of the Jesuits as gave tone to the public sentiment of Europe, and influenced the course of all the Governments toward the society. Viewed in this light, it becomes of the utmost importance, inasmuch as we may rightfully regard as true, even without special investigation, whatsoever influences the action of Governments and communities, and can not safely accept in opposition to it what interested parties—such as the Jesuits were—may assert to the contrary. The substance of this statement is contained in the work of Weld, one of the most earnest of the Jesuit defenders. It is in the nature of an indictment against the Jesuits, preferred by one of the leading Roman Catholic Governments of Europe, and on that account is both important and instructive. Abuse and vituperation—in the use of which the Jesuits are trained as experts—are no answer to it.

After alleging that the power of the Jesuits had so increased as to render it evident that there must be war between them and the Government in Paraguay, it proceeds to affirm "that they were laboring sedulously to undermine the good understanding existing between the Governments of Portugal and Spain," and that "their machinations were carried on from the Plata to the Rio Grande." It then embodies in a few expressive words, as given by the Jesuit Weld, these serious charges:

"That they had under them thirty-one great populations, producing immense riches to the society, while the people themselves were kept in the most miserable slavery; that no Spaniard or Portuguese, were he even governor or bishop, was ever admitted into the Reductions; that, 'with strange deceit,' the Spanish language was absolutely forbidden; that the Indians were trained to an unlimited, blind obedience, kept in the most 'extraordinary ignorance,' and the most unsufferable slavery ever known, and under a complete despotism as to body and soul; that they did not know there was any other sovereign in the world than the fathers, and knew nothing of the king, or any other law than the will of the 'holy fathers;' that the Indians were taught that white laymen adored gold, had a devil in their bodies, were the enemies of the Indians, and of the images which they adored; that they would destroy their altars, and offer sacrifices of their women and infants; and they were consequently taught to kill white men wherever they could find them, and to be careful to cut off their heads, lest they should come to life again."[104]

One would scarcely suppose that, after this terrible arraignment of the Jesuits in Paraguay, there could be any other counts added to the indictment. But in order to aggravate these offenses and to explain their disloyalty to the Government—as we learn from the same Jesuit authority—they were also charged with opposing and resisting the treaty of boundary between Spain and Portugal; with carrying on a war against the two Governments; fortifying and defending the passes leading to the Reductions with artillery; inciting the Indians to revolt; and with exhibiting an obstinate resistance to royal authority.[105]

There has never been, in the civilized world, such an enumeration of serious offenses charged against any body of men by so high and responsible authority as that of one of the leading Governments, as Portugal was. The modern reader can not avoid the expression of surprise when he realizes that they were made by those who faithfully adhered to the Church of Rome, and against a society which professed to have been organized to promote "the greater glory of God," for the express reason that no existing order sufficiently did so.

It is scarcely possible that such accusations as these would have been made without some justifying cause. If they were even exaggerated, the Government of Portugal must have obtained information from responsible sources sufficiently reliable to authorize a searching investigation. That, undoubtedly, was the object of Pombal and the king, not merely in explanation of their own official conduct, but to bring the conduct and attitude of the Jesuits to the notice of other Governments. Whatsoever the direct object they had in view, the charges thus formally made by them against the Jesuits led to a fierce and angry controversy. The Jesuits defended themselves with their accustomed violence, and it has required many pages to convey to the world the character of the maledictions visited by them upon the name and memory of Pombal. To us of the present time these amount to very little, inasmuch as they are almost entirely supported by ex parte statements of those implicated by the Government, and which are entitled to no weight whatsoever against the general verdict ultimately rendered by the European nations, in obedience to public opinion. We can not accept the Jesuit theory that these nations were all misled by false accusations, or that the subsequent suppression of the society was the consequence of undue popular prejudices. It is not difficult to deceive individuals, but Governments and communities are not apt to fall into serious errors. The collective judgments of whole populations are seldom wrong.

It was natural that the Christians of Europe should become, not only interested, but in some degree excited, when they came to know the character of the charges made against the Jesuits by the authority of the Portuguese Government. Many of them desired to look favorably upon the order on account of the relations they supposed it to bear to the Church. The Roman ecclesiastics were divided, some attacking and others defending it. It became necessary, therefore, that the matter should be brought to the attention of the pope, in order that the final judgment should be pronounced by him, inasmuch as they were considered a religious order, and, consequently, within the proper jurisdiction of the Church. With this view, Pombal, in behalf of the Government of Portugal, forwarded an official dispatch to Rome, whereby the pope was informed of the causes of complaint against them. The Jesuits say this dispatch is filled with "libels;" but this is to be attributed chiefly to their hatred of Pombal, to whom they, of course, assign the authorship. Nevertheless, it emanated from so responsible a quarter that the pope felt himself obliged to give it due consideration. He owed it to Portugal, no less than to the Church, to cause a searching investigation to be made, so that it might be ascertained whether the charges against the Jesuits were true or false. This could not have been avoided, even if he had desired it, and there is no evidence that he did.

Benedict XIV was at that time pope, and his secretary of briefs was Cardinal Passionei, who had the reputation of being a man of integrity and ability. The initiatory steps had, consequently, to be taken by them. The pope, however, was in infirm health, and the Jesuits insist that his sympathies were with them. This may probably have been so; but if it were, it furnishes no argument in their favor, because there was yet no evidence before him upon which any decision could have been based. The question he had then to decide was not whether they were innocent or guilty, but whether his duty did not require of him to take the necessary steps to ascertain what the truth really was. The charges were too serious to be passed over without this, and whatsoever the fact may have been with regard to his sympathies, Benedict XIV felt himself constrained to order, and did order, an investigation to be made. His brief to that effect was dated April 1, 1758, and addressed to Cardinal Saldanha by Passionei, as the pope's secretary, and commanded that the charges made by the Portuguese Government should be thoroughly investigated, and the facts laid before him for his pontifical guidance. This was the inauguration of a regular trial before a tribunal of acknowledged jurisdiction, and probably had the effect of suspending, in some degree, the public judgment to await his final decision. The Jesuits could not rightfully have objected to this course; and if it be true, as they insist, that the pope sympathized with them, they doubtless congratulated themselves upon his favorable inclination towards them. Whatsoever may have occurred afterwards, the investigation undoubtedly had an impartial beginning. On this account, the inquirer who desires to understand the history and character of the Jesuits, will be interested in its important details.

Cardinal Saldanha was appointed "visitor and reformer of the society," with full power to reform whatsoever abuses should be found to exist, and if, after investigation, "any grave matters" were discovered, he was required to report them to the pope, who would then decide what subsequent steps were to be taken.[106] The proceedings up to that point were therefore judiciously conducted. The death of Benedict XIV, however, within about a month after the date of this brief, passed it over to Clement XIII, his immediate successor. The Jesuits strive hard to show that although the pope referred in his brief to the reform of abuses, he did not intend thereby to signify that he had then decided that reforms were necessary. If they be allowed the benefit of this argument, it does not avail them against the fact that Cardinal Saldanha, after investigation, made a report in which "the fathers of the society in Portugal, and its dominions at the end of the earth, are declared, on the fullest information, guilty of every crime of worldly traffic that could disgrace the ecclesiastical state."[107] Whilst the special accusation here made had reference to the commercial traffic by which, in express violation of the rules of the society, the Jesuits had accumulated immense wealth in all parts of the world, and in direct violation of their vow of "extreme poverty," Pombal considered himself justified, with the assent of the king, in requiring of the cardinal patriarch of Lisbon the issuance of an official order "to suspend from the sacred ministry, or preaching and hearing confessions, all the religious of the Society of Jesus," in the Patriarchate of Lisbon. An order to that effect was accordingly issued by the patriarch, which made the issue more serious and complicated than ever; for it was a direct and practical procedure which everybody could understand. In their own defense, the Jesuits urge that the patriarch was intimidated by Pombal, and that, in consequence, he died of remorse within a month, and confessed his error upon his death-bed. Such defenses as this are of no weight as arguments, in the face of actual and known occurrences, and especially when it is well known that the Jesuits are in the habit of resorting so frequently to death-bed repentances, obtained in private by themselves, as to excite general suspicion against them. Even, however, if their statement in this case is accepted as true, the order of the patriarch was carried into effect by the Government of Portugal, and proved, in the end, to be the most fatal blow ever aimed at the society before that time. The proceedings were not arrested by the death of the patriarch; for the vacancy made by it was immediately filled by the appointment of Cardinal Saldanha as his successor, which the Jesuits were compelled to construe as a censure of their society, inasmuch as he had already, in his report, charged them with crimes disgraceful to the "ecclesiastical state." As this appointment was made by the pope, it is at least to be inferred that he, up to this point, regarded the investigation as fairly and impartially made. After his appointment as patriarch, Cardinal Saldanha banished the father superior of the Jesuit "Professed House," and caused such measures to be taken as resulted in the arrest of two Jesuits in Brazil, who were sent to Portugal and imprisoned. He appointed the Bishop of Para, in Brazil, as his ecclesiastical delegate to act in his name in South America. It would be impracticable to trace here all the events which followed; nor is it necessary, inasmuch as it is of far more importance to know the results than the series of details that led to them. The first important result that occurred in South America, under the ecclesiastical administration of the Bishop of Para, was the issuance by him of a decree whereby "he suspended all Jesuits in his diocese from the functions of the confessional and the pulpit."[108] He then continued to investigate the conduct of the Jesuits, and found that the ecclesiastics were divided with reference to them—some accusing and others defending them. Among those who opposed them were the Bishop of Olinda and the Bishop of San Sebastian, and these two prelates of the Church have been violently denounced by the Jesuits on that account. This, however, is a fixed habit with them. They denounce all who oppose them, and bestow fulsome praises upon all their defenders. By this indiscriminate method they impair confidence in themselves, and make it difficult to decide how much of what they say shall be accepted and how much rejected. The safer plan is to follow the course of public events, giving but little heed to the vituperation with which Jesuit works abound.

There can be no doubt of the fact that Benedict XIV had authorized the cardinal visitor appointed by him to apply all the measures necessary to reform the Jesuits, if, after investigation, he found any to be required. Thus the visitor was empowered to act for the Church and the pope; and, hence, the Jesuit resistance to his decrees was disobedience and insubordination. When Clement XIII became pope, he found just this condition of things existing, which not only increased his responsibilities, but added greatly to his embarrassment. The Jesuits say that Cardinal Passionei unjustly impressed his mind with the idea that Benedict XIV had already decided that the reform of their society was necessary, and that whatsoever he did under the influence of this false impression should not be considered to their prejudice. This is barely possible; but whether he did or not is immaterial, since Clement XIII could not, under any circumstances, have found himself justified in either abandoning or suspending the investigation which Benedict XIV had ordered. Nor could he have changed its course at any time after he reached the pontificate—the interests at stake were too important, and the welfare of the Church was too deeply involved. At all events, the investigation was continued under Clement XIII; and when the Jesuits realized that he could not be persuaded to abandon it, they endeavored to shift the issue by insisting that the hostility exhibited towards them had not arisen out of any of the things charged by the Government of Portugal, but had been created by the opposition of the "Jansenists and heretics" to them on account of their orthodox adherence to the Church of Rome. In this they exhibited their usual sagacity and cunning, evidently believing that it was the only means left them to bring over the body of the Roman Christians—the pope and all—to their side. It did, probably, tend somewhat to that, but fell far short of what they must have expected from it; for the further the investigation proceeded, the more unpopular their society became, not only on account of the proceedings in Paraguay, but because of their interference with all the Governments of Europe. We see this in the measures adopted in those Governments, and in the unanimity of the public sentiment which sustained them. The belief can not be indulged for a moment that these Governments and peoples—faithful and devoted as they always had been to the Church of Rome—were influenced by prejudices alone, and acted without some strong, controlling, and justifiable cause. It is worthy of repetition that Governments and communities do not thus act. And we shall soon see that there have been scarcely any other events in history so ratified by public approval as the expulsion of the Jesuits from the leading nations of Europe, and their final suppression and abolition by the pope. The evidence upon these subjects is so complete and overwhelming that it can not be set aside by volumes of eloquent denunciation, or weakened by Jesuitical sophistry.

Whilst it is not proper to exclude from our consideration all that the Jesuit writers have said with reference to the period and controversy here referred to, it should be accepted with a great many grains of allowance. Their warmth and vehemence excite suspicion, indicating more of passion than comports with the quiet composure of innocence. They are not willing that the least credit shall be given to anything against them, and demand that whatsoever is said in their behalf shall be accepted as indisputably true. It is not difficult to see, however, that much of the matter offered by them as historic truth does not reach the dignity of impartial evidence, and ought not to be given any serious weight when in conflict with allegations proceeding from reputable and responsible sources. Within a recent period an elaborate defense of the society has been made by one of its leading and most learned members, and sent forth to the world as a conclusive and unanswerable vindication. It is contained in the volume so frequently referred to in this chapter, and alleged to be mainly founded upon what "writers of the society" have said. He supports his defense of this method of making history by introducing the statements of anonymous authors which bear upon their face presumptive evidence that they were manufactured for the purpose by interested parties. He does not, of course, rely exclusively upon them, but, with true Jesuit ingenuity, has so interwoven these irresponsible statements with less suspicious authorities as to give coloring and credibility to the whole. He says: "The details have been filled chiefly in from three well-known contemporary works, the names of the authors of which have not reached us."[109] Such a course indicates the partisan rather than the impartial chronicler of events, and an absence of the candor with which so important a discussion should be conducted. Anonymous statements should not be entirely discredited, because they may be true; but in searching after the "truth of history" they should avail nothing unless consistent with the general course of events, and then only because of that consistency. One illustration must serve. It is argued that Benedict XIV sympathized with the Jesuits, and was favorable to them at the time he appointed Saldanha as visitor with authority to investigate and reform, and yet this same pope was constrained by their persistent disobedience to declare them "contumacious, crafty, and reprobate men."[110]

One reason why the papal authorities found so much difficulty in prosecuting the investigation of Jesuit affairs, was the impenetrable mystery which hung over the conduct of the society for more than two hundred years. By means of this secrecy and the concealment of the principles of their constitution, they were so enabled to compact their organization as to present a solid front to the world, with all its energies devoted alone to its own success. It was only when the constitution became known that Governments and society could defend against their machinations, which, as we have seen, were sufficiently well planned to defy even the pope and the Church functionaries appointed by him to inspect their conduct. Their persistency in refusing to expose to the public the principles of their constitution indicated, in the public judgment, that they feared a knowledge of them would add to the public indignation at their presumptuousness and vanity. And so decided was this refusal that it required the authority of the French Parliament—the highest judicial authority in that country—to drag the constitution from its hiding-place. One of their members had engaged in a mercantile adventure until he became bankrupt. Professing to have no property of his own out of which his debts could be collected, his creditors brought suit against the society, insisting that as the property it possessed was held in common for the benefit of all the members, it should be made liable for the debts of each. This having been resisted by the society, the Parliament, in order to reach a correct decision, compelled the surrender of the constitution. It was then decided that the defense set up could not be maintained, whereupon judgment was rendered against the society, and the debt was paid. After this time—when the principles of the constitution became known—the odium in which the Jesuits were held rapidly increased among both Roman Catholics and Protestants, but more particularly among the former, on account of their unremitting efforts to defeat and embarrass the investigation ordered by the pope. Unsophisticated minds, accustomed to respect the Church and obey its authority, could not understand why so many impediments should be thrown in the way of the pope in his efforts to discover the truth, if the society were, as it pretended to be, entirely faultless in its conduct. Even the authority of the Church was comparatively powerless to resist and overcome their obstinacy, as we shall have many occasions to observe in the course of our inquiries.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XII.

IDOLATROUS USAGES INTRODUCED.

It must not be supposed that the only grounds of complaint against the Jesuits were those already enumerated. Wheresoever they were sent among heathen and unchristianized peoples, they gave trouble to the Church, and inflicted serious injury upon the cause of Christianity. When they found a missionary field occupied by any of the monastic orders, they endeavored either to remove them, or to destroy their influence by assailing their Christian integrity, so that they could have everything their own way. They accustomed themselves to obtain their ends by whatsoever means they found necessary, considering the latter as justified by the former. Not in Paraguay alone, but wheresoever else they obtained dominion over ignorant and credulous populations, it was mainly accomplished by persuading them to believe that conversion to Christianity consisted in the mere recital of formal words the professed converts did not understand, and in the ceremony of baptism without any intelligent conception of its character, or of the example and teachings of Christ. The seeds of error they thus succeeded in scattering broadcast among the natives of India, China, and elsewhere, have grown into such poisonous fruits that all the intervening years have failed to provide an antidote, and it remains a lamentable fact that the descendants of these same professing converts have relapsed into idolatry, and continued to shun Christianity as if all its influences were pestilential. They became Brahmins in India, and, by practicing the idolatrous rites and ceremonies of that country, brought the cause of Christianity into degradation. Continuing steadily to follow the advice of Loyola, they everywhere became "all things to all men," by worshiping at the shrines of the lowest forms of heathen superstition as if they were the holy altars of the Church. And when rebuked for this by the highest authorities of the Church, they justified themselves upon the ground that any form of vice, deception, and immorality became legitimated by Christianity when practiced in its name. In China they engaged with the natives in worshiping Confucius instead of Christ, and made offerings upon his altar without the slightest twinge of conscience. They omitted nothing, howsoever degrading, which they found necessary to successfully planting the Jesuit scepter among the Oriental populations, until at last, after a long and hard struggle, they were brought into partial obedience by the Church, whose authority they had defied, and whose precepts they contemptuously violated.

Whatsoever may be said or thought of the various religions which have prevailed throughout the world, there is one thing about which there can be no misunderstanding; that is, that the Brahminism of India and the Christianity of Christ can not be united together harmoniously. There are many reasons for this, apparent to every intelligent mind, but a few only are sufficient for present purposes. It has always been the central idea of the former that Brahma should be worshiped through a multitude of divinities, representing each passion and emotion of the mind; and that his wrath shall be appeased by sacrificial offerings, even of human beings, in order to reach total annihilation as the highest and most perfect state of beatitude after death; whereas the central idea of Christianity is that worship is due only to one God, the Author of all being and the Sovereign of the universe, so that when man shall reach "the last of earth," his spirit shall enter upon immortality. Brahminism held India for centuries in degrading bondage, and Christianity was designed to lift mankind to a higher plane of being. This belief was universal among all Christians, howsoever they may have differed in forms of faith and modes of worship; and none were louder in its profession than the Jesuits, who pretended that they alone were worthy to occupy the missionary field, and were specially and divinely set apart to spread the gospel among all heathen peoples. In carrying on their work, however, in India, they violated their solemn vow of fidelity to the Church by casting aside every pretense of Christianity, and openly, but with simulated professions of Christian zeal, adopting the idolatrous practices common to the natives. They shamelessly cast aside the profession of Christianity as if it were a thing of reproach, and performed with alacrity the most revolting Hindoo rites, seemingly as regardless of the obligation of obedience to the Church as of their own dignity and manliness of character. They substituted fraud, deceit, and hypocrisy for that open, frank, and courageous course of conduct which a sense of right never fails to suggest to ingenuous minds. They unchristianized themselves by becoming Brahmins and pariahs, crawling stealthily and insidiously into the highest places, and sinking with equal ease and skill into the lowest and most degrading. Even in this enlightened and investigating age, many intelligent people will wonder whether or no these things are possibly true, inasmuch as they shock so seriously every sense of personal honor and religious duty. But the verifications of them are sufficiently abundant to remove all possible doubt, furnished, as they are, not alone by the authors of general history, but by those friendly to the Jesuits, and usually prompt to apologize for them.

One of the most conspicuous of the Jesuit missionaries to India, after Xavier, was Nobili, who reached Madura about the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is pretended that his predecessors had been unable to convert any of the Brahmins, inasmuch as they had labored exclusively with the pariahs, who, besides being shunned and despised by the Brahmins, had paid no heed whatsoever to their Christian admonitions. Nobili, therefore, taxed his ingenuity to discover some practical method of removing this difficulty. He had before him numerous examples of those who had spread the cause of Christianity by openly professing and courageously vindicating it. There was something inspiring in the thought that in its past successes Christianity had required no disguises, but had achieved its victories over paganism in the field of open and manly controversy. To a devout and Christian mind there was no ground of compromise between Brahminism and Christianity. One or the other had to yield—they could not unite. Nobili knew this, and but for his Jesuit training would scarcely have departed from the plain line of Christian duty. With his mind, however, disciplined by the belief that it was his duty to be "all things to all men," he imitated the example of Mahomet, who went to the mountain when it would not come to him, by casting aside his character of Christian and becoming a Brahmin himself. He assumed the character and position of a "Saniassi;" that is, the highest caste among the Hindoos. What that word means is not very plain, but the Jesuits insist that those Brahmins who bore it had given some indications of penitence, and that the object of Nobili was to insinuate himself into their favor, secretly and by false pretenses, and thus bring them over to Christianity. There is much reason for believing that this was an afterthought, set up as a defense when the flagrant and unchristian conduct of the Jesuits excited general distrust among the Christians of Europe. But if it expressed the real motive existing at the time, it was then, as always, wholly without justification or excuse—a plain and manifest breach of Christian obligation and duty. He could not become a Saniassi without denying that he either was or had ever been a Christian, and without solemnly affirming that he was a native Hindoo, and not a European—the latter, known by the hated name of Feringees, being held in special and universal contempt by all the natives, and especially by the Brahmins.

All these things, of course, involve false professions and oaths without number; and, more than that, such stifling of the conscience as to leave it incapable of distinguishing between truth and falsehood, or between fair and false dealing. It was all done, says the Jesuit historian Daurignac, "with the approval of his superiors and of the Archbishop of Cranganore;" that is, it had full Jesuit indorsement. And as if it were possible to find merit in such profanation of what all Christians consider sacred, by departing from the rules of Christian life, this same authority informs his readers how Nobili appeared as a Jesuit-Brahmin, after he discarded all the distinguishing marks and characteristics of Christianity, and presented himself in the capacity of a full-fledged native Hindoo. "He assumed," says he, "the costume of the penitent Brahmins, adopted their exterior rule of life, and spoke their mysterious language." He shaved his head, wore the Brahmin dress, including ear-rings reaching down his neck. And "to complete the illusion"—that is, the deception and false pretense—he represents him as having "marked his forehead with a yellow paste, made from the wood of Sandanam"—a practice peculiar to the Hindoo Brahmins. Thus metamorphosed he "passed for a perfect Saniassi, and the Brahmins themselves, wondering at such a rival, sought his presence, and questioned him as to himself, his country, and his family." His disguise, however, perfect as it was, did not cause him to forget that he was still in fact a Jesuit, and he, obedient to his training, carried his impostures and falsehoods far enough to make his deception complete and effectual. Consequently, "his oath obtained for him admission among the most learned and holy Brahmins of the East. They named him Tatouva-Podagar-Sonami—a master in the ninety-six qualities of the truly wise." And thus, by means of the most unblushing hypocrisy and false oaths, Nobili denied his religion, his name, his country, and the God whom he had professed to worship, and became a Hindoo Saniassi, all for "the greater glory of God."[111]

Numerous other Jesuits imitated this example of Nobili, and became both Brahmins and pariahs. Some of them were specially trained and tutored for the purpose, under the elastic system of Jesuit education, each one, of course, having been carefully instructed in the best and safest modes of practicing deception, of violating oaths, and of making the basest means contribute to the end designed to be accomplished. It is claimed for them, apologetically, that they thus became enabled to convert many hundred thousand Indians, both Brahmins and pariahs, to the cause of Christianity. No intelligent mind, however, can be misled by such a pretense as this, for if even that number of the natives were brought under their influence, they could not have risen higher than the low standard fixed by the lives of their Jesuit instructors. But this story can not be accepted as true, coming as it does only from the active agents in this vast system of fraud and falsehood. It is far more likely to have been only one more untruth added to the multitude which these Jesuit impostors were in the habit of repeating daily. Besides, if any such conversions to Christianity had occurred, the impostures of the Jesuits would have been discovered, and the whole of them driven from the country. The Jesuits then in India admit enough themselves to assure us of this. One of them said: "Our whole attention is given to concealing from the people that we are what they call Feringees. The slightest suspicion of this on their part would oppose an insurmountable obstacle to the propagation of the faith,"—the plain and obvious import of which is, that honesty and fair dealing would have weakened the cause of Christianity, whereas its strength was increased and maintained by false pretenses, false swearing, and the false profession of devotion to the Brahminical religion. Another one of them said: "The missionaries are not known to be Europeans. If they were believed to be so, they would be forced to abandon the country; for they could gain absolutely no fruit whatever. The conversion of the Hindoos is nearly impossible to evangelical laborers from Europe: I mean impossible to those who pass for Europeans, even though they wrought miracles." At another place he represents that it "would have been the absolute ruin of Christianity" if the Jesuits had been known as Feringees or Europeans; that is, that in order to advance Christianity, it was necessary to deny it, even under oath, and to profess that the idolatry of the Hindoos was the true worship of God.[112]

The pretense of the Jesuits, therefore, that immense numbers of converts to Christianity were made by them, must have been entitled to no higher credit than their other professions; at all events, the acknowledged authors of a system of falsehoods and deceptions are not entitled to our confidence. It is possible, however, that they may have succeeded in baptizing in secret a few of the natives, and that some Brahmins were among them. But if they did, it is quite certain that the ceremony must have been administered by stealth, and generally so that those who were baptized had no distinct knowledge of what it meant, and may not even have known the time of its administration. At no point in the Jesuit missionary system has more harm been done to the cause of true Christianity than at this. Millions of ignorant and deluded people have been persuaded to believe that Christianity consisted in nothing else but the mere ceremony of baptism, without any intelligent conception of God. Xavier commenced this system in India, and these Jesuit-Brahmins, who followed Nobili, were his imitators. Taking all the accounts together, the number of converts in India was simply enormous, and yet in 1776, after the Jesuits had left there, a very small percentage of their estimated numbers were found.[113] But these exaggerations are more excusable than the methods adopted to impose baptism upon unsuspecting and simple-minded multitudes. The German Steinmetz, alluding to this, says: "They insinuate themselves as physicians into the houses of the Indians; draw a wet cloth over the head and forehead of the sick person, even when at the point of death; mutter privately to themselves the baptism service; and think they have made one Christian more, who is immediately added to the list." The Jesuit De Bourges is represented by him as saying: "When the children are in danger of death, our practice is to baptize them without asking the permission of their parents, which would certainly be refused. The Catechists and the private Christians are well acquainted with the formula of baptism, and they confer it on these dying children, under the pretext of giving them medicine;" that is, by that kind of "pious fraud" which, according to the Jesuits, promotes "the greater glory of God." Another Jesuit father, whose experience in India enabled him to speak advisedly, mentions one woman "whose knowledge of the pulse and of the symptoms of approaching death was so unerring, that of more than ten thousand children whom she had herself baptized, not more than two escaped death." The number of such baptisms during a famine in 1737 are alleged by still another Jesuit to have been "upwards of 12,000." And he supplements this statement by saying that "it was rare, in any place where there were neophytes, for a single heathen child to die unbaptized."[114] Looking over this whole field of Jesuit operations, and contemplating the demoralizing influences of the Jesuits in India, this same German historian feels himself warranted in saying that "every Jesuit who entered within these unholy bounds, bid adieu to principle and truth—all became perjured impostors, and the lives of all ever afterwards were but one long, persevering, toilsome LIE."[115]

It would be a fruitless task to summarize the pretexts invented by the Jesuits to convince ignorant and superstitious people that God not only approved, but directly sanctioned, the frauds and perjuries they practiced in his name, and that he had specially and divinely set them apart—distinct from any other body of people in the world—to demonstrate how "the greater glory of God" could be promoted by such iniquities. If the line could be accurately drawn between their good and evil deeds, it would be most instructive to observe how enormously the latter exceed the former. There was no trouble whatsoever for a Jesuit Saniassi to assume the character of a Christian and an idolatrous Hindoo almost at the same instant of time, in which dual capacity he could perform miracles, like those of Xavier, with the ease and skill of a modern prestidigitator. They even held the wildest animals at bay by the odor of sanctity which encircled them! One of them states that, when traveling at night with his companions, a large tiger was discovered approaching them, when, by simply crying out, "Sancta Maria!" the ferocious animal became terrified and moved away, showing, "by the grinding of his teeth, how sorry he was to let such a fine prey escape." Another, to show how Providence overshadowed and shielded the Jesuits, said "that when heathens and Christians happened to be together, the tigers devour the former without doing any harm to the faithful—these last finding armor of proof in the sign of the cross, and in the holy name of Jesus and Mary."[116] Such superstitious tales as these are told, and many pretended miracles added to them, with a seeming unconsciousness upon the part of those who relate them, that the world has reached a period when the truth can be discovered, even through all the disguises which falsehood and deception may throw around it.

To those who have not investigated the history of the Jesuits, as written by themselves, these accusations may seem harsh and unmerited; not so, however, to those who have. No matter where they went, the obligation of being "all things to all men" was held to be obligatory upon every member of the society. Obedience to the Superior was the highest virtue, notwithstanding it may have involved violations of the laws of God, of morality, and of society. How else could professed Christians pretend to be engaged in the practice of virtue by denying Christ, disavowing his worship, and habitually practicing the debasing rites of the Hindoo religion, for more than a century, as Nobili and his Jesuit followers and imitators did? And what other possible pretext can be offered for the Jesuit worship of Confucius in China, in religious confraternity with the natives, who made their public ceremonies and festivities special testimonials of their adoration of him as the founder of their national religion and the chief among the gods of their idolatry? We shall see how these things were by the proceedings which led to their condemnation by the popes, although the Jesuit historians, who are forced to acknowledge them, try hard to show that the pontifical censure was not deserved.

Daurignac—the ablest of the Jesuit defenders—referring to the course of Nobili and others who practiced idolatrous rites, says: "Some Europeans had been scandalized by this method of appearing all things to all men, in order to win all to Christ." This sentence is misleading in this, that instead of there being merely "some" who felt scandalized, there were multitudes throughout Europe. The ecclesiastical authorities at Goa, in India, were also of this number; and when the complaint reached there that Nobili "had become a Brahmin, and given himself up to idolatry and superstition," he was summoned to Goa to explain his conduct. He could not disobey this summons, and when he reached there, "the sight of his singular costume elicited a general expression of indignation" among the Christians. When required to explain, by the Archbishop of Goa, as the official representative of the Church—appointed by the pope for that purpose—the only defense he could make was that his motives were good; that is, that the prostitution of himself and his sacred calling was well meant because his object was to promote "the greater glory of God!" The Jesuits at Goa accepted his reasons "as sufficient," says Daurignac. There are two methods of accounting for this: First, they were Jesuits; and second, because Nobili's method of falsehood and deception opened to them new and extensive fields of operation, which, if recognized, they could occupy with great success in extending the power of their society. But the archbishop thought otherwise, and "absolutely refused" to accept Nobili's reasons as satisfactory. Accordingly—speaking for the Church and the pope, as he was authorized and empowered to do—he condemned the conduct of Nobili and the reasons he assigned. Nobili "asserted that the truths of the gospel could not have been introduced into Madura by any other means;" but the archbishop refused to accept this excuse, evidently regarding it as a debasing doctrine, aimed at the very foundation of Christianity. Neither would yield. Nobili, backed by the Jesuits, insisted that he was under no obligation to obey the archbishop, although he acted under the special authority of the Church and the pope; and the result was that the matter had to be sent to Rome and the decision of the pope awaited. In the meantime Nobili returned to Madura, where he continued his idolatrous practices, notwithstanding the censure of the Archbishop of Goa was resting upon him, and he was thereby placed in the attitude of disobedience to the legitimate authority of the Church.[117]