[156] Hume’s Hist. of Eng. chap. xlii.
[157] Crét. vol. ii. p. 309.
[158] Pasquier, Catéchisme des Jésuites, lib. iii. ch. 16.
[159] See Crét. vol. ii. p. 79.
[160] Crét. vol. ii. p. 78.
[161] These are some of the numberless privileges that the Jesuits had obtained from different Popes even within the first twenty-five years of their establishment:—They had the privilege of having a private chapel in every house or college, and to celebrate mass even in time of interdict; of absolving from every censure even in cases reserved for the Pope alone; of dispensing from religious vows, or from impediments to marriage; of conferring academical degrees which entitled the graduate to the honours and privileges conferred by the royal universities. They were exempted from tithes and from all other ecclesiastical contributions; and, above all, they were independent of the jurisdiction of the bishops.
[162] See Crét. vol. i. pp. 406, 407.
[163] Ibid.
[164] It is well known that in France the Roman Catholic clergymen are divided into ultramontane and Gallican; that the latter, under Louis Philippe, maintained their independence, and a sort of superiority; but that, under the rule of the pantheist Louis Napoleon, the ultramontane party, under the direction and patronage of the Jesuits, has obtained the ascendancy, which they exercise with a domineering spirit, and which is increasing every day.
[165] Father Maldonat propounded a doctrine, that no one remained in purgatory longer than ten years; and this, in order to assure the princes that, if the properties of monasteries or other benefices were given to the Jesuits, there would be no fear of their ancestors, in general the pious founders, roasting in purgatory—who knows how long?—if the benefices were appropriated to other uses than those for which they were intended.