[76] Ibid. p. 299.
[77] Crét. vol. i. p. 290.
[78] Our readers must not take the word parliament in the same signification it has in England. The parliament of France was composed of a body of magistrates, and formed the Supreme Court of Judicature, in which the princes of the blood had a seat; and which was sometimes presided over by the king. Every province had its parliament, but none exercised the same influence with that of Paris.
[79] Crét. vol. i. p. 320.
[80] This Postel was a rabbin converted to Catholicism. He was very learned, a graduate of the university, and held in high estimation by Francis I. and all his court. In 1545 he went to Rome to enter the Society of Gesù. This acquisition gave great joy to the Jesuits. Postel was very kindly received, and much flattered. He then went through the Spiritual Exercises; but this strange course of devotion affected his fervid imagination so much, that his faculties became impaired. He began to propound strange doctrines—to propose new rules for the Society; and, above all, would by no means obey the orders of Ignatius. Loyola having no longer any hold upon him, dismissed him, for which act of firmness Loyola’s panegyrist extols him to the skies.
[81] Crétineau, vol. i. p 334.
[82] Maffei, Ignat. Vita, p. 110.
[83] Idem, p. 109.
[84] Orland. lib. xiv. § 96, 97.
[85] The Litteræ Annuæ Societatis Jesu, from 1606 to 1614, fill eight volumes in 8vo; the Lettres Edifiantes, twenty-one volumes in 8vo, and so on.