SECT. 1. court of Rome was informed of their odious frauds; CENT. XVII and this information was by no means looked upon as groundless. Many circumstances concur to prove this, and among others the conduct of the congregation at Rome, by which the foreign missions are carried on and directed. For it is remarkable, that, during many years past, the jesuits have been much less employed by that congregation, than in former times, and are also treated, on almost every occasion, with a degree of circumspection that manifestly implies suspicion and diffidence. Other religious orders have evidently gained the ascendant they formerly held; and in the nice and critical affairs of the church, and more especially in what relates to the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, much more confidence is placed in the austere sobriety, poverty, industry, and patience of the capuchins, and carmelites, than in the opulence, artifice, genius, and fortitude of the disciples of Loyola. On the other hand it is certain, that if the jesuits are not much trusted, they are however more or less feared; since neither the powerful congregation, now mentioned, nor even the Roman pontiffs themselves, venture to reform all the abuses, which they silently disapprove, or openly blame, in the conduct of this insidious order. This connivance, however involuntary, is become a matter of necessity. The opulence of the jesuits is so excessive, and their credit and influence are grown so extensive and formidable, in all those parts of the world that embrace the religion of Rome, that they carry their insolence so far as to menace often the pontiff on his throne, who cannot, without the utmost peril, oblige them to submit to his orders, where they are disposed to be refractory. Nay more, the decisions of the pope are frequently suggested by this powerful society, and it is only in such a case that the society treats them with unlimited respect. When they come from any other quarter, SECT. I. CENT. XVII. they are received in a very different manner by the jesuits, who trample upon some of them with impunity, and interpret others with their usual dexterity in such a manner, as to answer the views and promote the interests of their ambitious order. Such at least are the accounts that are generally given of their proceedings; accounts which, though contradicted by them, are nevertheless supported by striking and palpable evidence. The methods of converting the jesuits enemies. VI. The rise of these dissensions between the practised by jesuits and the other Roman missionaries is owing procure them to the methods of conversion used by the former, which are entirely different from those that are employed by the latter. The crafty disciples of Loyola, judge it proper to attack the superstition of the Indian nations by artifice and stratagem, and to bring them only gradually, with the utmost caution and prudence, to the knowledge of Christianity. In consequence of this principle, they interpret and explain the ancient doctrines of paganism, and also those that Confucius taught in China, in such a manner as to soften and diminish, at least in appearance, their opposition to the truths of the gospel; and whenever they find, in any of the religious systems of the Indians, tenets or precepts that bear even the faintest resemblance of certain doctrines or precepts of Christianity, they employ all their dexterity and zeal to render this resemblance more plausible and striking, and to persuade the Indians that there is a great conformity between their ancient theology and the new religion they are exhorted to embrace. They go still further; for they indulge their proselytes in the observance of all their national customs and rites, except such as are glaringly inconsistent with the genius and spirit of the christian worship. These rites are modified a little by the jesuits, and are directed toward a different set of objects, so as to form a sort of coalition between paganism and Christianity. To SECT I. secure themselves an ascendant over the untutored CENT. XVII. minds of these simple Indians, they study their natural inclinations and propensities, comply with them on all occasions, and carefully avoid whatever may shock them. And as in all countries the clergy, and men of eminent learning, are supposed to have a considerable influence on the multitude, so the jesuits are particularly assiduous in courting the friendship of the Indian priests, which they obtain by various methods, in the choice of which they are far from being scrupulous. But the protec tion of men in power is the great object they principally aim at, as the surest method of establishing their authority, and extending their influence. And hence they study all the arts that can render them agreeable or useful to great men; hence their application to the mathematics, physic, poetry, to the theory of painting, sculpture, architecture, and the other elegant arts; and hence their perseverance in studying men and manners, the interests of princes, and the affairs of the world, in order to prepare them for giving counsel in critical situations, and suggesting expedients in perplexing and complicated cases. It would be endless to enumerate all the circumstances that have been complained of in the proceedings of the jesuits. These that have been now mentioned, have ruined their credit in the esteem of the other missionaries, who consider their artful and insidious dealings as every way unsuitable to the character and dignity of the ambassadors of Christ, whom it becomes to plead the cause of God with an honest simplicity, and an ingenuous openness and candour, without any mixture of dissimulation or fraud. And accordingly we find the other religious orders, that are employed in the foreign missions, proceeding in a very different method in the exercise of their ministry. They attack openly the superstitions of the Indians, in all their connections and in all their consequences, SECT 1 CENT.XVII and are studious to remove whatever may seem adapted to nourish them. They show little regard to the ancient rites and customs, in use among the blinded nations, and little respect for the authority of those by whom they were established. They treat with a certain indifference and contempt the pagan priests, grandees, and princes, and preach, without disguise, the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, while they attack, without hesitation or fear, the superstitions of those nations they are called to convert. propagated in India. Christianity VII. These missionaries of the court of Rome spread the fame of the christian religion through the greatest part of Asia during this century. To begin with India; it is observable, that the ministerial labours of the Jesuits, Theatins, and Augustinians contributed to introduce some rays of divine truth, mixed indeed with much darkness and superstition, into those parts of that vast region that had been possessed by the Portuguese before their expulsion from thence by the Dutch. But of all the missions that were established in these distant parts of the globe, none has been more constantly and universally-applauded than that of Madura, and none is said to have produced more abundant and permanent fruit. It was undertaken and executed by Robert de Nobili," an Italian jesuit, who took a very singular method of rendering his ministry successful. Considering, on the one hand, that the Indians beheld with an eye of prejudice and aversion all the Europeans, and on the other, that they held in the highest veneration the order of brachmans, as descended from the gods; and that, impatient of other rulers, they paid an implicit and unlimited obedience to them alone, he assumed the appearance and title of a brachman, that had come from a far country, and, by besmearing his coun Others call this famous missionary Robert de Nobilibus. SECT. I. tenance and imitating that most austere and painful CENT. XVII. method of living that the sanianes or penitents observe, he at length persuaded the credulous people, that he was in reality a member of that venerable order. By this stratagem, he gained over to Christianity twelve eminent brachmans, whose example and influence engaged a prodigious number of the people to hear the instructions, and to receive the doctrine, of this famous missionary. On the death of Robert, this singular mission was for some time at a stand, and seemed even to be neglected. But it was afterward renewed, by the zeal and industry of the Portuguese jesuits, and is still carried on by several missionaries of that order, from France and Portugal, who have inured themselves to the terrible austerities that were practised by Robert, and that are thus become, as it were, the appendages of that mission. These fictitious brachmans, who i Urban Cerri, Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 173. Nobili, who was looked upon by the jesuits as the chief apostle of the Indians after Francois Xavier, took incredible pains to acquire a knowledge of the religion, customs, and language of Madura, sufficient for the purposes of his ministry. But this was not all; for, to stop the mouths of his opposers, and particularly of those who treated his character of brachman as an impostor, he produced an old dirty parchment, in which he had forged, in the ancient Indian characters, a deed, showing that the brachmans of Rome were of much older date than those of India, and that the jesuits of Rome descended, in a direct line, from the god Brama. Nay, father Jouvenci, a learned jesuit, tells us, in the history of his order, something yet more remarkable; even that Robert de Nobili, when the authenticity of his smoky parchment was called in question by some Indian unbelievers, declared upon oath, before the assembly of the brachmans of Madura, that he, Nobili, derived really and truly his origin from the god Brama. Is it not astonishing that this reverend father should acknowledge, is it not monstrous that he should applaud, as a piece of pious ingenuity, this detestable instance of perjury and fraud? See Jouvenci Histoire des Jesuites. Norbert, Memoires Historiques sur les Missions de Malab. tom. ii, p. 145. * Urban Cerri, Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 173. |