point the policy of the Jesuits appears to have been defective. If they had sent good father Louis XIV to a foreign mission, for instance, to Canada or Brazil, in execution of his fourth vow, and had bestowed his crown upon some other creature of their own, as they had transferred that of poor king Anthony, probably they might have ruled Europe with less trouble. Father Louis XIV was not always disposed to be a submissive subject[[109]].
I mention two facts more, because they are new—not related by Prynne, nor even by the
learned writer of the historical articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, whose words, in his article "Jesuits," you have so exactly copied into your Letters. 10. "Pope Urban VIII," you say, "transmitted a bull to the Jesuits' vice-provincial, Stillington, commanding all catholics to be aiding in the civil war, for which they should receive indulgences, such as power of releasing others from purgatory, and of eating fish at prohibited times, and if he should be killed, of being placed in the Martyrology[[110]]." The gross absurdity of this narration is evident without a comment[[111]]. The other is still more extraordinary. 11. You invite us to consult "the important memorial presented by Parsons the Jesuit, to king James II, for bringing in popery[[112]]." This Parsons is a most
wonderful Jesuit. You have already sported him as the associate of Campion to assassinate queen Bess in 1581, that is, one hundred and four years before James II became king of England; and it is very certain, that he died and was fairly buried at Rome, in the month of April, 1610; that is, twenty-three years before king James II was born. I omit many other Jesuitical pranks, which you allege, relative to English history, because every reader may find the refutation of them, only by looking into Dr. Milner's celebrated Letters to Dr. Sturges, where the profligacy of Elizabeth and her ministers, and the futility of the assassination-plots, with which they charged Jesuits and other priests, are evinced to demonstration. It is now time to think of De Thou.
This writer's character is well drawn by the learned professor of Lovain, Dr. Paquot:—Thuanus audax nimium; hostis Jesuitarum imcabilis; calumniator Guisiorum; protestantium exscriptor, laudator, amicus; sedi apostolicæ et
synodo Tridentinæ, totique rei catholicæ parum æquus. De Thou was fully animated with the general and prevalent spirit of the parliament of Paris, in which he held the rank of president a mortier; and this spirit led them at all times to advance their own importance, by favouring every party that opposed either the church or the crown. Their constant aim was to balance the power of the monarch, and to depress the spiritual authority of the holy see and the bishops. During the active administration of Louis XIV, they were confined to their proper functions of civil and criminal justice; but in the times, which preceded and followed that reign, they were leaguers, and favourers of the Hugonots, and abettors of the Fronde, and, lastly, open protectors of the Jansenists. De Thou never publicly seceded from the catholic church; he was satisfied with insulting it. His abilities were great; the elegance of his style is engaging: but, as he wrote solely to favour the Hugonots, his narrations are compiled only upon their memoirs, or they are sports of his own
imagination. He professes to write the history only of his own times; and, consequently, his story rests upon his own credit, unsupported by vouchers: his ipse dixit is the whole proof. He is wonderfully fond of detailing conspiracies against princes, and, in these fabulous tales, he completely sacrifices the dignity of the historian; he sinks into a romancer and a comedian. He leads his conspirator through cities and provinces, to gather associates; the pope, or the king of Spain, or some cardinal, directs the plot; he has at his finger-ends the closest secrets of the conspiracy; he recites letters, which were never written; and, most commonly, Jesuits, but sometimes Dominicans, even Capuchins, are his principal actors. These men give anticipated absolution to the assassin; they promise him the crown and palm of martyrdom; they impart to him the pope's benediction; and, to use your odious cant, they give him the sacrament upon it. All this is sweet reading to bigoted sectaries; and, with them, the word of De Thou is paramount to demonstrative proof.
I have sketched De Thou's character, because he stands foremost among the modern corrupters of history, too successfully followed by Voltaire, by Hume, by Robertson, and a throng of servile imitators in France and in England, whose historical romances have so much contributed to render religion odious, and to plunge mankind into scepticism and infidelity.
Having already mentioned the writer of the historical and biographical articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica, I here recommend to Laicus to cultivate a more intimate correspondence with that accurate compiler, if he be still engaged in historical pursuits. They will thus reciprocally gather improvement by communication of their respective discoveries; they will mutually support each other, and advance the common cause in which they are engaged. How strange it is, that the historian of the Encyclopedia, so well informed of whatever concerns Jesuits, should not have known, that Louis XIV was a professed member of that order, bound by four solemn