Clement XIV vainly flattered himself, that, by making ample concessions to the importunity of the combined ministers, by persecuting the Jesuits in detail, contrary to his own conviction, he should, in the end, escape the necessity of crushing them altogether. It was the policy of Pontius Pilate. His whole reign was one series of vexatious treatment; even outrages against them. From the first day of his pontificate they were the only Christians excluded from access to the common father. His condescension only betrayed his weakness, and enhardened the ministerial conspirators. When, at length, he found it impossible to resist them, without incurring the loss of his states, "he gave sentence,

that it should be as they required[[42]]." He resorted to the principle of the high priest, in St. John, chap. ii, verse 50, the expediency of which is so clearly announced in his Letters[[43]]. But here three things sorely distressed him: the incongruity and injustice of condemning the Jesuits without a trial, which he knew the ministers would not permit; the approbation of their institute by the council of Trent; and the concurring approbation of the order by nearly twenty popes, especially the very recent constitution, or bull, of his immediate predecessor, Clement XIII, solemnly published, and received by the whole church. The applicants for the destruction of the order undertook to remove his scruples.

I am obliged to sir John for drawing my attention to Ganganelli's brief, which I might otherwise have passed over without much

scrutiny. He is of opinion, that it should accompany the bull of the reigning pontiff; but some connoisseurs may think, that it will show to more advantage exhibited between the just mentioned bull apostolicum of Clement XIII and that of Pius VII: it would thus have a pendant on each side, eliciting, by a double contrast, all the effects of art. The bull apostolicum formed a principal objection to the grand plan of destruction, not easy to be evaded. It was so recent, so public, so solemn, so decisive. It was a distinct and specific approbation and confirmation of the society of Jesus; it repeated the sentiments of all popes from Paul III; it was solicited by hundreds of bishops; it was formally communicated to the college of cardinals, and was applauded by them all; it was accepted by every catholic bishop; it had every character of a formal judgment of the whole catholic church. Clement XIV and his advisers dared not to contradict it by another bull; it would have been a great scandal. The cardinals could not have concurred in it. The inferior,

and less authoritative, mode of brief, or private letter, or rescript, in which it was not usual to consult the cardinals, was adopted. In this, the difficulty presented by the apostolicum of Clement XIII is overleaped in a short and peremptory way, by an absurd declaration of its having been extorted rather than granted, without any proof, and in defiance of the number of circumstances which demonstrate the contrary. As sir John appears to be unacquainted with this famous constitution of Clement XIII, published in the beginning of 1765, and as it is perhaps the best written official document which Rome has, for many years, sent forth, it shall be inserted in the Appendix in its original language[[44]].

The more I consider Ganganelli's rescript, the more am I surprised at the pitiful attempts made to lay down something like an apology for injustice, and the more am I disgusted with its want of principle. It opens with a long narration

of the suppression of various small religious associations by ancient popes, but it leaves us quite in the dark as to the justice or injustice of those several suppressions. It informs us, that several complaints had been made, at several times, to several popes, of the Jesuits; but it omits to tell us, that those complaints had always been either rejected, or refuted, or disregarded, by those several popes, whose public acts attest that they were, one and all, friends and supporters of the society[[45]]. The brief then recites the jus, or leading maxim, on which the whole procedure hinges, and which, in spite of

the Roman canon, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, solves the pope's first difficulty, or scruple, of punishing without trial: it is this; that the slow and fallible method of proceeding before courts of justice must be avoided; that reliance must be placed WHOLLY on that plenitude of power, which popes possess in so eminent a degree, as vicars of Christ upon earth, and as sovereign moderators of the Christian republic; and that regular orders, which they propose to suppress, ought not to be allowed the faculty of producing any arguments in their defence, or of clearing themselves from the heavy accusations brought against them. These are the words of the brief, as given by sir John in the translation of it in the Appendix to his Speech; in other words, the accused may be punished without being heard. This requires no comment; every British heart will suggest a just one.

Let us now see how Ganganelli gets over the difficulty arising from the approbation of the council of Trent. To the eternal disgrace of

this brief, then, we find the operative or suppressing clause made to depend upon a paltry sophism. Stating the demands and wishes of his dear sons, the kings and ministers, with the addition of pressing solicitations from some bishops and other persons, Clement, for a salvo to his conscience, declares (page 25), "that to choose the wisest course, in an affair of so much importance, he determined not to be precipitate, but to take due time to examine attentively, weigh carefully, and wisely debate upon it." What was done? "First of all," continues the brief, "we proposed to examine upon what grounds rested the common opinion, that the institute of the clerks of the company of Jesus had been approved and confirmed in a special manner by the council of Trent! And we found, that, in the said council, nothing more was done, with regard to the said society, than to except it from the general decree respecting other orders. The same council declared, that it meant not to make any change or innovation in the government of the clerks of the company of Jesus, that