Images de page
PDF
ePub

read Father Daniel's Reponse aux Lettres Provinciales, and his Lettres au Père Alexandre. "No author," says Doctor Maclaine, in a note (u) to his Translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent. XVI. Part 1. C. 35., "has given a more accurate, precise, and clear enumeration of the objections that have been made to the moral doctrine of the Jesuits, and the reproaches that have been cast on their rules of life; and none, at the same time, has defended their cause with more art and dexterity, than the eloquent and ingenious Gabriel Daniel, (a famous member of their order), in a piece entitled, Entretiens de Cléandre et d'Eudoxe." His Lettres au Père Alexandre, are written with still greater point and elegance. Those who read more recent publications against them, should also read L'Apologie de l'Institut des Jesuites and Mr. Dallas's New Conspiracy against the Jesuits detected, and briefly exposed, an elegant and able work.

[ocr errors]

In 1776, the Society of Jesus was suppressed by Pope Clement the Fourteenth. " In general," says the author of the Vie privée de Louis XV. Vol. 1v. p. 61., and he cannot be accused of partiality to the Society, "the more numerous and respectable portion of the community regretted the Jesuits. If the great cause had been heard, with the solemnity and gravity due to its importance, the Jesuits might thus have addressed the magistrates: You, yes, all you, whose hearts and understandings we have formed, answer, before you condemn us, these Questions! We appeal to the judgment, which you formed of us, in that age, when candour and innocence reigned in our hearts. Now, therefore, come forward and declare, whether in our schools, in our discourses, or in the tribunal of penance, we ever inculcated to you any of those abominable maxims, with which we are now reproached? Did you ever hear them fall from our lips? Did you ever read them in the books which we put into your hands?'-Alas! "continues the same writer," the magistrates said all this to one another. In private, they held no other language, but they were no sooner seated on the bench of justice, than they were overpowered by their fanatical and louder brethren.”

By a Bull, dated the 15th of August, 1814, the Society of Jesus, faventibus bonis omnibus, was restored. A fuller account of this interesting society has been prepared by the writer of these pages, and inserted in a work, which, in the course of the next year will be submitted to the public, under the title of Historical Memoirs of the Church of Frances during the reigns of Lewis the Fourteenth, Lewis the Fifteenth, Lewis the Sixteenth, the Revolution, and the Restoration of the Monarchy.

VII.

The reign of Lewis the Fourteenth was illustrated by several. Religious Communities, which, during that period, were either founded or first established in France. Without being bound by religious vows, the members lived in community, in the observance of certain settled rules, and, thus far, had a resemblance to religious orders. Such were the Oratorians, the Lazarists, and the Sulpiciens.

The Oratorians were particularly given to the study of Theology and Sacred Literature, and, possessing Mallebranche, Lami, Simon, Le Brun, and other able writers, attracted, in a high degree, the notice of the public. The Lazarists and Sulpiciens courted obscurity. The character given by M. de Bausset, of the Sulpiciens, in his life of Fenelon, may be applied equally to them and the Lazarists. In perusing it, the reader will probably be put in mind of the beautiful lines, in which the Poet, in his Temple of Fame, (verse 356-366.), describes the smallest tribe he vet had seen. "Avoiding public notice," says M. de Bausset, "engaging in no contest, resigning to others those good works, which confer celebrity, it was their object to be actively employed in the service of the church, in the most obscure and most humble functions: and, within that modest but useful line of duty, their exertions were uniformly confined. They had numerous establishments in France, and existed 150 years, without the slightest abatement of their first fervor, when at the beginning of the French Revolution, they perished in the general wreck of what was most respectable and holy in France.”

VIII.

VIII. 1. It remains to give some account of the MILITARY ORDERS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. Some time before the first crusade, an hospital was established at Jerusalem, for the relief of the poor pilgrims who resorted there. In 1100, Gerard, the director of it, and his companions, professed themselves members of the order of St. Benedict, and formed a congregation, under the name of St. John the Baptist. It was approved by Pope Pascal II. In 1113, Raymond du Puy, the successor of Gerard, divided the order into three classes; to the nobles he assigned the profession of arms, for the defence of the faith, and the protection of pilgrims; the ecclesiastics were to exercise the religious functions, for the benefit of the order; the lay-brothers were to take care of the pilgrims and the sick. These regulations were approved by pope Calixtus II.; and the order then took the name of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. After the loss of the Holy Land they retired to Cyprus: thence to Rhodes: in 1522, that island was taken from them by Solyman the Great: Malta was then given them by the Emperor Charles V.; from that time, they have generally been known by the appellation of Knights of Malta.

VIII. 2. The order of the Knights Templars was established nearly about the same time, and for the same purposes as that of the Knights of Malta. They took their name from a monastery given them by Baldwin, the second king of Jerusalem, which immediately adjoined the temple in his palace. They were suppressed by the Council of Vienne, in 1312.

VIII. 3. The Teutonic Order was founded on the model of that of the Knights Templars. It was confirmed by Pope Celestine, in 1191. The knights conquered Prussia in 1230, and fixed the head seat of their order at Marienburgh. In 1525, the grand master embraced the protestant religion: since which time, the head seat of the order has been at Margentheim, in Franconia.

VIII. 4. The original object of the Order of St. Lazarus, was to take care of persons infected with leprosy; in the course of time, it became a military order. The whole body returned with St. Lewis into Europe, in 1254. Afterwards, it was united in France, with the order of our Lady of Mount Carmel, and in Savoy, with the order of St. Maurice. -All these orders displayed heroic acts of valour, in the enterprises of the Crusaders, to recover the Holy Land.

For the history of the military orders of the church of Rome, the reader may consult, Histoire des Ordres Militaires seculiers et reguliers de l'un et de l'autre sexe, tirées des differens auteurs, et principalement de l'Abbé Giustiniani, avec des figures gravées en taille douce, qui representent leurs habillemens. Ams. 1721, A vol. in 8vo.

ESSAY II.

On the Discipline of the Church of Rome, respecting the general Perusal of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, by the Laity.

This Essay comprises, with some additions, the whole of a first, and extracts from a second and third letter, addressed to Thomas Stonor, Esq., and published in the Gentleman's Magazine, for the month of December, 1813, and the months of February and September in the following year. Several replies to them appeared in different numbers of the same valuable repository. To those, the writer, being perfectly satisfied with the ground, on which they left the question, made no replication.

As they are now offered to the reader, the substance of these letters may be found to contain some account :

I. Of the ancient discipline of the Church of Rome, respecting the general perusal of the scriptures by the Laity. II. Some account of the change made in the ancient discipline, in consequence of the troubles occasioned by the Waldenses and Albigenses. III. Some account of the actual state of the discipline of the Church of Rome in this respect. IV. A short statement of the sentiments of some respectable protestant writers on the unrestricted perusal of the scriptures. V. Some observations on the notion, entertained by several protestants, of its being considered by the Roman-catholics to be unlawful to print a

« PrécédentContinuer »