Secreta Monita Societatis Jesu. The Secret Counsels of the Society of Jesus, in Latin and English

by Unknown

1. It is an authentic work, containing the real facts it pretends to contain; and being what it purports to be.

2. It is the work of some expelled Jesuit, and may be more or less true, according to his knowledge of what he tried to reveal, or his integrity in telling truly what he knew.

3. It is the work of an enemy, who never was a Jesuit, but who has pretended to put into the mouth of the chief authorities of that order, what he believed they would say, if they uttered their real sentiments on the points here treated of.

III. Let us then briefly examine each of these suppositions in turn. And first, is this work authentic? I reply there is scarcely a particle of reason to doubt it.

1. In the British Museum there is a work printed at Venice in 1596, with this title “Hæ Formulæ diversarum Provisionum a Gaspare Passarello summo studio in unum collectæ et per ordinem in suis locis annotatæ.” At the end of that (and where more likely?) the Secreta Monita, in Latin is copied in Manuscript, apparently by a Jesuit, for his own private use;—with solemn cautions at the end, similar to those found in the printed preface to the work itself, that the utmost care was to be taken that few, and these most trusty, should know them; and that if ever imputed to the society, they must be denied.

2. In the year 1658, there was a translation of the work from Latin into English, published in England. This edition is frequently to be met with. In the preface to it, it is related that Duke Christian of Brunswick took possession of the Jesuit College at Paderborn, in Westphalia, when he entered that place, and gave the Library and Manuscripts to the Capuchins, who found the Secreta Monita amongst the archives of the Rector. It is also asserted that other copies were found at Prague and elsewhere.

3. Dr. Compton, the celebrated Bishop of London published another English version of the Secreta Monita in the year 1669; having satisfied himself, after full examination, of the genuineness of the work.

4. In the year 1717, there was published at Amsterdam, a Latin edition of the Secreta Monita, under the title of “Machiavelli Mus Jesuiticus,” inscribed to John Krausius, a Jesuit. A copy of this edition is in the British Museum.

5. There are also in the British Museum several German editions of the Secreta Monita.

6. In the year 1722, another edition of this work was published in London, dedicated to Sir Robert Walpole, prime Minister of England.