The doctrine of the Jesuits

Dedication

TO MONSIEUR FREPPEL, BISHOP OF ANGERS.

BOSTON, MASS.: B. F. BRADBURY & COMPANY,

443 WASHINGTON STREET.

I. AIM AND PLAN OF THE Book

On the 21st of June, 1879, was opened, in the Chamber of Deputies, the discussion of the scheme of law touching ‘Liberty of Superior Education;” a scheme in which the most important clause (Article 7), interdicted teaching in all degrees to the Jesuits, and other members of religious congregations not recognized by the laws of the State.

On that day I made a speech,* in which I tried to demonstrate, from a purely political point of view, the dangers of an education given by that sect, to the tranquility and moral unity of our country. Where that sect has been tolerated, it has always carried with it the germs of civil war; that all those countries have expelled and cursed it; and that, according to the terms of existing French legislation, its members ought to be immediately expelled.

A few days later, the Minister of Public Instruction brought to the tribune, to second the same proposition, some quotations drawn from books of history by the Jesuits, which excited the indignation of the Chamber, and clearly proved the imminence of the peril.

This called me again to the Parliamentary stage, and forced me more deeply into the question. The historical judgments and previsions are but one of the applications of morality; it is, then, the Jesuits’ doctrine of morality that I attacked and summoned to the bar of the Chamber, on the 5th of July, 1879.7 Briefly, I recalled the eloquent attacks of Pascal; then, passing to a more

* See page 495. 7 See page 537.

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recent time, I borrowed freely from the justificative documents of the famous sentence rendered by the Parliament of Paris on the 5th of March, 1762; at last I came to modern times, and exposed the persistence of those odious doctrines, together with their introduction into the teaching not only of youth, but even of the smallest children.

From a devoted friend, I received next day some interesting extracts * from the works of the Jesuit Gury, who was then completely unknown to me. I must confess, I took advantage of them, and inserted them in a reply to M. de la Bassetiére.f

The effect of my speech on the 5th of July was, I may say without vanity, truly extraordinary. The emotion in the Chamber was intense. A newspaper which published it in eatenso, sold more than 100,000 copies, solely on account of it. I received numerous letters of felicitations and even of thanks; friendly hands were stretched towards me from all parts of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and from all the countries invaded by the sons of Loyola, under cover of silence and shadow.

It was not the fault of the Jesuits if the picture had no dark side, and that the deep joy I felt in being the recipient of so many marks of sympathy was not troubled by the violence of their insults and threats. But their arrows fell short of the mark; scorn made me insensible to their attacks.t

The most moderate among my defamers said I had made use of

* Unfortunately an error of the copyist was found, for which I have been harshly reproached, although in reality it was of no importance whatever. See page 586.

t See page 582.

+t Reasonable people who do not know the resources that hate furnishes to the devotees of Rome, will never understand, cannot have an idea, of the insults, of the vulgarities, that the Jesuits, as well as their natural allies, poured over me. It was an impotent rage: spumat rabies vesana per ora. A medical newspaper of Vienna, which had honored me in publishing a long biographical notice, sums up all these products of Catholic charity in the following terms: ‘ The Catholic papers call him a libertine, ashameless materialist, aman infected with all the vices and turpitudes of Paris, a shame to the French tribune, a wretch, a rake, a mischief-maker! One can see by this furious inundation, that Paul Bert has struck right in the bull’s eye.” And I can affirm that the Austrian paper has remained far beneath the reality. I mention also the more characteristic aggressions for which the Police Court of Paris has just punished the authors.

Preface. XV falsified texts, that I had falsified some of them myself. Falsificators Pascal, Dumoulin, Pasquier, La Chalottais, and so many others! Falsificators, the Commissaries of Parliament! I found myself in good company.

I would not have been otherwise ‘disturbed, if, among my accusers, I had not found some ecclesiastical functionaries, besides two or three bishops, one of whom, M. Freppel, called me directly to account, using the harshest of terms.

I resolved to answer, and began a pamphlet threatening to become very extensive. It was, up to this time, an exposure of Jesuitical doctrines; an accumulation of new citations drawn from the very sources, accompanied by keen comments and indignant tirades; in brief, an imitation more or less happy of the immortal Provinciales.

But my plan was suddenly changed, after a glance at the catalogue of the National Library. I saw that after an ephemeral success, my book, on that subject, would have the same fate, and fall into the same abyss where so many books sleep the sleep of forgetfulness. Numbers of those works are marvels of independent spirit, logic, erudition, eloquence, and the Provinciales themselves have not escaped oblivion.

How are we to account for and justify such public and general indifference? What can be the cause of it? How is it possible to escape it? Whence comes the uselessness of so many efforts often so powerful? I struggled with the problem, and I believe I have solved it.

I suppose a book conceived such as the one I had at first made. JT adorn it with all imaginable qualities : the bitter raillery of Pascal, the highly-strung indignation of La Chalottais, the sensitive eloquence of Michelet, the winged poetry of Quinet. I hand it toa wise, moderate, liberal man, in whom the Jesuits cause a certain and secret apprehension, but who refrains from appearing an enemy of religion : this species is not rare, it constitutes to-day almost the totality of the French ‘‘bourgeoiseie ;’’ this man must be convinced before anything is done, firstly, because it is his own opinion, the public opinion; then, because he has children, with prowling Jesxvi Preface.

uits around; and if his wife belongs to them, his daughter is already in the meshes, and his son threatened.

Our good man opens the book and reads it to the end; I admit that he is at first interested, then indignant. Call on hima month later.

‘Well! You have read! What quotation! It is odious, astounding !”

‘Yes, yes,” he answers ; ‘‘ but, do you see, I have thought about it; it does not prove much. They are very old, those quotations. Those men of the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth centuries even, could not have on morality, any more than on politics, the same ideas that we now have. To reproach the Jesuits of Lhomond Street for the maxims of Tolet, Emm Sa, Fagundez, Suarez, Filliucius and so many others already dead in the time of Pascal, is to stretch the rights of polemic; it is to mix up a dead theology with the actual, living morality. Periods of history would be systematically confused! As well compare the League with the French Revolution and make the one responsible for the other.

‘‘The language, moreover, is quite different: the gross vulgarities of those times would in our days rouse indignation. One could not reprint Sanchez! Think of Rabelias, of Brantone, the delight of Jadies at Court! What princess to-day would pass the whole night, like young Mary of Prussia, copying ‘‘ La Pucelle,”’ and would boast of it? Those ignominies of old.casuists have lost their effect in these times of ours.

‘¢ Further, you can not put any confidence in those extracts. I know well that the author has copied them accurately ; the rascals who accuse their adversaries of fulsifying the texts prove only that they are mean enough to do it. Besides, one can hardly verify them; the books are rare, and can be found only in large libraries. Then, the author belongs to a party, he is a soldier a fighting man; he had to write accordingly. The Jesuits have written much, and a great many volumes; hundreds in folio form. One looks through them in every corner, with no distinction of epochs, countries, characters ; one selects phrases, parts of phrases, some odious things, I admit, that startled me. But what of it? All that is artistically arranged ; lines written centuries apart are

Preface. XVii brought to complete one another; they are prepared and framed in a skillful exposition. What is more serious, they are torn from their former setting; they are isolated from the principles constituting their philosophical value, or from the application which gave them their practical utility. It is the difference between a herbarium and a green field. Who knows if the rule has not been taken oftentimes for the exception, the incidental phrase for the principal, the reserve for thé principle; add to this the unavoidable errors, the alterations of texts often quoted from former cuttings, and at last, errors of translation, inevitable in such arduous matters. . . . No, decidedly, I cannot be convinced ; it is skillful arguing, I admit, and sincere, I am sure of it; at least, so far asit is possible for a party-man tobe sincere. But the more I think of it, the less I agree with it. It is again the eternal Truth: ‘Give me four lines from the hand of a man, and I can have him hung.’ Yours is a curious book, but it proves nothing.”’

Such is his defence: many times did I hear such language. Surely, this is not hard to refute ; but the book itself cannot do it. Besides, you will very seldom be listened to; the reader has made up his mind; he has got rid of an irritating problem; perhaps he has found the means to avoid household quarrels ; to discuss with him would be as wise as to pull out a nail by striking on its head witha hammer. |

What is to be done, then? Ask him, and he will answer you.

‘¢ What is necessary, you see, is to show me that tne modern Jesuits, those with whom we live, those to whose school my wife wants me to send my son, teach actually the same doctrines, speak the same language, that the old ones spoke. I readily admit they were not worth much. We know truly that none of them can publish a book without the consent of their Superiors, and so no personal opinion can be entertained. I have even read somewhere that they boast to have but one language and but one thought, so that one of their generals said :

That they would be what they are, or they would not be.

‘*s But all these are general maxims, things written for effect, for

XViil Preface.

show, if you will allow me to say so. It is said also, that they aie so skilful, so conciliating, so insinuating, so supple! There is contradiction in the two ways of looking at them. As for me, I believe they stand on the level of circumstances, and that they are living up to the spirit «f modern times.

‘¢T know full well that it would not be difficult to clear up that question. There are books qnite recently written, in whieh Jesuits, actually living, expose the compendium of their dectrines. This is what I would like to read ! There, I should have a true idea of things, secing them well set in order, without the intervention of a third party, always suspected. But they are big volumes, very tiresome, they say, and I have no time. Besides, they are: written in Lutin; and, between us, my consciones 13 pretty rusty, and it has never been my forte.

‘¢ What I would like is a modern book, a complete book written by a Jesuit, having full authority, and having been translated without any abridgment, cutting off only what does not interest me; for I care little about metaphysics, and still less about theology. That wou'd be indeed to render a grent service to myself and to many others. We would read anil judge for ourselves, without needing help fiom fabricated phrases; we are a people with common sense and honor.”

The sclution was found, and our bourgeois was right. Yes, the authors who have written about Jesuits have put too much self into their books. We must change all that, and replace the subjective method by the objective one.

This was understood: I threw my work into the waste-basket, after having gathered a small part relating to the alterations of text of which I was accused,* and I set about to find a Jesuit who might answer my purpose.

I found him easily ; indeed, Gury was all that could be desired. [Te died quite recently, after having taught morals for a long time in tie college Romain, the Jesuit’s college in Rome. He has published two voluminous works in two large volumes, each represent-

*Ms falsifications: Letter to the Director of the Republique Francaise (see 29th of August, 1879) published in a pamphlet by the Editor of the Petite dicpublique Francaise.

Preface. xix ing ten times the matter treated in the present book, Compendium Theologie Moralis, aud, a Casus Conscientice. Those books have had several editions; the last one being publi-hed in 1875: they are in the hands not only of all Jesuits, but also in those of a large number cf priests; and, by the testimony of M. Guibert, archbishop of Paris, they have happi’y transformed, in the last thirty years, the spirit of the French Clorgy.* So, in Gury was to be found the two prominent qualities required, actuality and authority. Besides, it was from him I had quoted, about whom I had committed an involuntary error, and him I was accused of having calumniated. There could not be any possible hesitation.

I took then the four volumes of the last edition, and began the most ardous of works to compile the present book. I proceeded thus: ~ The Compendium is a theoretical book, divided into a series of treatises (on human actions, on conscience, on laws, etc., etc. )

The Casus Conscientie 1s a compilation of cases, species, ancedotes, which constitute as many problems on theological morality : they are grouped by treatises corresponding to those of the Compendium. Ibegan to dismember, so to speak, those two works, and melt them iuto one, each treatise of the Compendium being followed by the cases relating to them, each theoretical exposition followed by its practical application. Different typcgraphical symbols help to recognize thein ata glance. .

Let us sec now the mode of abridgment.

For the Compendium, I lave carefully preserved all the general aspect of the book. Each treatise is divided into parts, sections, chapters, articles, paragraphs; I have reproduced tie same order ; I have even kept the numbers which correspond to each new idea, in each paragraph. In a word, the ind x is absolutely intact. This done, I took care not to analyze anyihing whatever ; there is uot, in the whole book, a single line written by myself.

* «There is no doubt that the two works of P. Gury have powerfully contributed to extend among the French Clergy the easiest solutions of probabilism.” (P. Matignon 8. J.: Etudes Religieuses, 1866).

+ Revised, corrected, angmented, put in order by Henri Dumas, S. J.; second edition. Lyon: Briday, 1875. Casus Cunscientie, fifth edition. Lyon, Briday, 1875.

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When the saying of the casuists seemed interesting, I translated it textually and completely ; otherwise, I set it aside and replaced it by a line of dots whose very changeable value is easy to measure by the number of missing numbers.

In that distinction between what appeared to me worthy of reproduction and what I thought better not to mention, I was guided by very diverse considerations. At first, I systematically omitted all that had but a purely theological interest or ecclesiastical discipline. The treatise on Theological Virtues, Church Precepts, Sacraments, (principally those of Baptism, Confirmation, Eu-harist, Extreme Unction, Order,) Censures, Irregularities, Indu'gences, have been very much shortened. In te other treatises, I have retained only what may interest the laity, viz: the general principles, and their most important deductions, the exceptions so often destructive of the rule, reserves, subterfuges ; also, occasionally, the odd questions, the odious vices, that Gury borrows from former casuists, or invents; for he was a man of a very fertile imagination. But bear in mind that I have not trans- Jated only that which seemed to me reprehensible ; far from it, and I am ready to take the responsibility of a great number of tiie propositions reproduced further; those not mentioned seem also to me very often blameless. My aim has not been to expose an extract of bad or dangerous maxims; but to give an outline, as complete as the method permits, of the Jesuitical doctrines of the present day.

As for the cases, a sort of Anas, often fastidious, but sometimes strange and ingenious, whose multiplicity in the oral teaching gave, it seems, to the Lectures of Rev. Father Gury, a particular savor, the choice has been a great desl easier. I took at first a good part of those on the Jesuitical solution not in accord with the lay morality; then, those which are interesting in themselves; either because they reveal the crafty dodges that often take place in the confessional between confessor and penitent; or because they sect in action some grotesque superstitions ; or because they show the proof of the eratic preoccupation which haunts, in all circumstances and in all places, the imagination of.

Preface. XX1 the Jesuit, and compels him to introduce the ‘ res venercae”’ in all casuistical matters.

A certain number of notes are added to the text. Some of them demonstrate the persisting accord that exists between the ancient Jesuitical rules, and the actual doctrine formulated by Gury.* Also it will be clearly seen, that in spite of certain attenuations of form, imposed by the spirit of the times, the Jesuits have renounced none of their ancient doctrines. Not even those

* 'The texts that I quote are borrowed from the celebrated ‘‘ Extracts of the dangerous, and as pernicious assertions of every sort of the so-called Jesuits, veritied and collected by the Commissaries of the Parliament of Paris 1762.” 1 vol., 4to, of 544 pages.” From this volume I drew the numbers of my citations.

It is known that the Jesuits have tried to contest this formidable accumulation of facts, in taking advantage of a certain number of errors of no importance, which they have collected and compiled; anid this fearful number, 758, they zealously show up before the world. Here is how they were classified after the answer, in four voluminous books, edited by the R. F. Grou and Sauvage:

In the Latin extracts.

Errors against the letter and the sense of the text of the author 41

Suppression of phrases in the text 4 : i ; ‘ 261

Mutilation of the text . . , 2 : ‘ : : GL

Mistakes - ; : : “ é : 4 és : 94 457 In the French version.

Grammatical errors in the Latin construction : ¢ 16

Alteration of the sense in the words : ‘ - : 220

Alteration of the sensein the phrase . . ; : 65 301

In all justice, a defalcation of the errors in the French version ought to be made; the ‘‘ Extracts of Assertions ” give the Latin text in juxtaposition to it. Then, looking more attentively, we see that the ‘*‘ Suppression of phrase,” and the ‘‘ Mutilation of text” in Latin, have absolutely no significance in the immense majority of cases. The Jesuit, to sustain his accusation, is obliged to drown himself in page after page of explanation; this indicates that his answer, which ought to have been so brief and so simple, forms four large volumes, 4to.

Again, the Archbishop of Paris, thinking to be able to find twentyseven errors in those texts, the Parliament named in 1764 a numerous Committee, who carefully received the questions and answered these allegations.

From all this, there remained only one more proof of the impudence of the Jesuits. The seven hundred and fifty-cight falsifications are to be added to the twenty-four with which I have been reproached, one among these being the falsification of the name of Casnedi, being written Cassendi by the proof-reader of the ‘: Oficial.”

XXil Preface.

denounced by Pascal, which were condemned in 1679 by Pope Innocent XI. Other notes show those doctrines used in the teaching of childhood by recent catechisms, and especially in the one by ‘* Grand Vicaire Marotte.” I took this catechism as a type, being the official book of our primary and normal schools. Many allusions to recent facts are found in them, and one may — safely consider these facts as logical applications of the Jesuitical maxims.

The analysis of Gury’s books under the conditions indicated above, do not constitute the whole of the present volume. - At first, I added to it the analysis of a work (page 448) extensively spread amongst the clergy of the South of France, perfecting cn one point the work of the Jesuit. It is a ‘‘Dissertation on the 6th and 9th Precepts of the Decalogue,” from the authorized pen, so dear to the Jesuits, of Abbe Rousselot, professor in the grand Seminary of Grenoble, and principal author (after Mademoiselle de la Merliére) of that shameful comedy called the apparition of ‘**la Salette.’ Here I made numerous abbreviations and left a good deal of Latin, for special reasons that every one will understand. I beg pardon for having almost completely translated, although softening the terms, the corresponding passages of Gury! I felt that it was necessary to show to everybody what degree of aberration the casuistic mania may reach; and how, in reality, the odious Sanchez is living still, if not perfected. And when we know that this book is for the special use of young confessors and pupils of grand seminaries, we may well ask ourselves what must be the effect of these descriptions and meditations on the mind of youth. |

A second addition (page 486) is the list of the 65 propositions condemned by Pope Innocent XI. on the 16th of March, 1679. Pascal’s calumnies, as the Jesuit’s saying is, will have some practical value; because most of these propositions had been taken from the Jesuitical text, and denounced in his ‘Lettres a un Provincial.” From that time the Jesuits have avoided condemnation with an admirable skilfulness, and set on foot all those propositions that might be of practical interest for them as soon as they were overturned. |

Preface. XXlil

At last I close this book, hy the reproduction, after the ‘¢ Journal Official,’ of the speeches which have been the cause of the present conflict.

Such is this book. The common sense and the good judgment of the reader will decide. Let meadd only one last observation.

Errors of translations may have escaped me; it cou.d not be otherwise in so tedious a work, done so quickly, with a Latin so strange and oftentimes so obscure. I depend on my enemies to point them out, and beg them instantly to set themselves to work, in order that I may profit by their criticisms. My excellent publisher has kept the stereotype plates in view of these corrections.

As for these errors, as well as for other similar ones, I can do no better than to put myself under cover of a very reasonable passage of the Jesuit publisher of the famous ‘‘ Reponse aux assertions du Parlement.”

‘Accuracy and precaution must be our first duty in such a work, where it is difficult that no errors could escape us which will not be infallibly pointed out and magnified by our enemies in the eyes of the public, and treated as capital faults, no matter how light they may be. We are convinced that the work itself leaves no ground for contest, and that all the resource that remains to them will be to attack a few oversights which will not better their cause.”

This caution was singular from his pen. It answered in advance all its complaints and the work of the Commissaries of Parliament. I adopt it for myself in its true light. |

The books of Gury are at the disposition of the public at a very moderate price, so, those who are tormented by the critical spirit, may easily alleviate their thirst for truth by comparing the original with my extracts and translation.

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Summary of the Book.

The first impression felt by a lay realer, in looking over a Jesuiticul Compendium, is wonder and dread. This book is all, or at least pretends to be all: canon law, civil law, penal law, even commercial law, jurisprudence, and also divine and human science, all may be found here. One feels that the disciple who in the course of his studies has been thoroughly impregnated with it, who carries it with him out from the Seminary, often into the very heart of the country, where, by the side of the breviary, of the Catechism and Confessor’s Manual, it will form all his library, must persuade himself that all is found there which will guide his conduct towards men as well as his relations with Heaven. Nothing escaped the casuist, and on all things the priest will find the ready prepared solution; he will be able, book in hand, to discuss the origin of morality, or the validity of trusts, the S:erament of the Eucharist, or matters of Exchange. Society can have no hold on him, nor teach him anything; everything ‘has been foreseen by his chiefs.

When from this he comes to the study of a part of that Encyclopxdia at once profane and sacred, the layman is struck. by the absence of any general principle, of any rule comprising a considerable number of facts or ideas. Everywhere, on the contrary, a need of curtailed definitions, and above all, of divisions and classifications, which crumble the principle, shorten, chill, and cause the bringing up of a large number of small aphorisms, that will be later easily opposed to eacu other. Let us take for instance, the chapter on conscience. Immediately after a definition which seems the very negation of free will, we hve the divisions : Conscience is upright or erroneous, certain or doubtful, etc., etc. (page 61); then the subdivisions and secondary divi-

XxV1 Preface.

sions: vincibly erroneous or invincibly erroneous ; invincibly erroneous which commands, vincibly erreneous which permits, ete., ete. As much as to say, the trre truth, the doubtful truth, the false truth. These sublime woras lose thus all elevated and holy signification, and this is just what the casuist is aiming at: he will soon have the best of it.

A third surprise for the reader not used to that sort of books is the facility with which, out of an excellent principle, he deduces {he most monstrous consequences. It is always the old sophism about the splitting of a hair. Circumstances,added one to the other to the primitive truth, like water added drop by drop to generous wine, transforms the one into a sour beverage and the other into scandalous error, without knowing at what precise moment the transmutation happened. One feels full of anguish and drawn towards a fatal declivity, the tufts of grass tearing cff under our crisped hands. It is the strength of the casuist, and the ne plus ultra of his art: he knows that, at last, tired and bruised, the patient will roll into the abyss.

And what shall he find there? The downiaed of beds, soft as the mire: probabilism. This is the true pillow of doubt, but not in the sense pointed out by Montaigne. No more principles! ‘Their fragments alone fell into the abyss, and overseach one of them a casuist cavils and disserts. For any question, he holds the solution well in hand; he offers it to the passer-by; and as he is, aecording to the formula of the Jesuits, doctor, honest man and savant, his opinion becomes probable, and the passer-by may choose, in the tranguility of his erring conscience, what best suits him, practically, between all these solutions handed to him hy those doctoral hands. Remark, that if he avails himself of one to-day, he may hold to-morrow the contrary opinion, if it is his interest tu do so (pages 69, 77, etc.) The confessor, however, master in so many things, can do nothing about it, and he must submit and absolve when the penitent can refer to the opinion of a dircetor, had he sought him for a long time. (Pages 70, 75, ete.) How is it possible not to rejoice at such a convenient doctrine, and echo the thanksgivings of Escobar: ‘* Verily, when I consider so many diverse sentiments on the matter of morals, I think it is

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Preface. XXVil a happy dispensation of Providence, such a variety of opinions helping us to bear along more agreeably the yoke of the Lord!”

I do not insist on Pascal’s revengeful imprecations, which vibrate yetin all memories. But it will be sufficient to look over the present book to see that the Jesuits have in no point renounced the famous doctrines of probabilism, (pages 65-72,) and of philosophical sin, cause of the invincibly erroneous conscience (page 62-72.) This may have burlesque or monstrous consequences.