CHAPTER XVI

FAILURE

THE Jesuit work was practically destroyed. The Great Revolution marks the lowest depths to which the Catholic Church in England fell after so many reverses. Hope seemed to be gone. The Anglican Church and the Protestant Succession were established upon the ruins of Catholic aspirations; and the penal laws, if not so bloodily enforced, became heavier and more sure in action. Thousands of the laity, disgusted at being misled by men who, on account of their spiritual office, claimed to lead, forsook such chieftains and fell away. Those who remained steadfast sank down and became a mere sect, despised on account of their numbers and weakness. The Catholics were now the outcasts of the nation. Such in England, as in Poland, were the results of Jesuit politics.

The annals of the English Jesuits now are mainly of domestic interest. Removed from the world of politics, they could devote themselves to their proper work. But the old spirit of restlessness remained. Too wise not to accept accomplished facts, they took little or no part in the Jacobite outbreaks of 1715 and 1745. In those days Catholics, as a rule, not unnaturally clung to the Stuarts, and were among the foremost of the supporters of the Pretender. There was much sentiment in the idea; and it is a question whether the Stuarts were worthy of the devotion lavished upon them. But the Jesuit has taught himself to suppress all such follies in his own heart. The Stuarts were gone past hope: all that was then left to the Society was to make the best of what was to be found in England. The Jesuits now devoted their energies to keep the faith alive, here and there, in many "an old-fashioned house of gloomy appearance, closed in with

high walls, with an iron gate and yews, and the report attaching to it that Roman Catholics' lived there." 1

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They sat down to wait again for another "Golden Day," when Englishmen by education would know how to use the rights they were then engaged in winning. The controversy with the Jansenists, which had been going on in France for many years, opened a way for their activities. Jansenism seems to have been, in the beginning, like Luther's, a legitimate protest against a prevalent laxity. The sight of the French King, year after year, leaving his mistresses for a few days while he made his Easter Communion, and then returning at once to the unlawful connections, was only an outward sign of the inward corruption. The principles of Casuistry were sometimes stretched until Conscience was nowhere and Direction took its place.2 The extravagances of some moralists were responsible for the scandals that ensued. It was to protest against this lowering of sacred things, this casting of pearls before swine, that certain men took a more rigid and earnest view of religion; and to this they joined theories on the abstruse subject of grace, which were opposed to the opinions of certain Jesuit theologians. Blaise Pascal in 1656 began his famous Provincial Letters which, while making French literature, held up the Jesuits to the ridicule of the world. Though quite unscrupulous in his methods of attack or in the arguments he used, Pascal received much help from the senseless behaviour of the Jesuits themselves, that to this as well as to him the downfall of the Society in France is largely to be attributed. Instead of yielding in what was true in the letters (and a great deal is true), the apologists defended their writers through thick and thin. They would not allow that one of "ours" could have made a mistake, although Popes had not been slow to condemn them. It is through this exaggerated esprit de corps that stirs up the whole body in defence of one member (Qui unum tangit, tangit omnes), that they eventually came to grief. Thus attacked both on the moral and dogmatic 1 Newman, Sermons preached on Various Occasions, ed. 1892, p. 172.

2 Mutius Vitelleschi wrote to the Society, 4th January 1617: "Some opinions of ours, especially in matters pertaining to morals, are far too free, and not only is there danger that they may upset the Society but be also of great detriment to the universal Church of God."-Epist. Prap. Gen. (Antwerp, 1635), p. 432,

side, the evil passions of either parties were inflamed; and good men and true were, by the bitterness of their opponents, driven at last into an attitude of defiance which lead to an open rupture. Odium theologicum gained the victory, and in the intoxication of triumph the Jesuits did not hesitate to use the convenient charge of Jansenism against any who ventured to oppose them. To such an extent was this carried that Innocent XII. in 1694 was obliged to interfere. But the mischief went on. "Some persons moderated themselves in it, and when they durst not speak plain, their custom was to mutter something of men's being tainted, or, with a malicious air of compassion, wish it were not so, or, in fine, with a shrug or a But in their character show how great a reluctance they had to be divorced from the darling vice of calumny. This obstinate behaviour of some persons in regard of Jansenists of their own making occasioned the same Pope, Innocent XII., to issue out a second decree in the year 1696, wherein he severely rebukes such as make use of the flying calumny of Jansenism to drive on their private ends." 1

The English Jesuits were not behindhand in the matter. Dodd tells the Provincial in the year 1703 they "industriously dispersed a book through the whole kingdom called The Secret Polity of the Jansenists, which they pretended was written by a converted doctor of Sorbonne, but indeed was penned in the year 1651 by a skulking French Jesuit, Etiènnne de Champs, and translated by them, with a preface and some additions relating to the Jansenists in Holland, and fitted for your present design. Now the marks of Jansenism delivered in this book are much different from those given by His Holiness. The substance whereof ( . . . ) I find to be, namely, Jansenists are a people who rail much at loose morals and frequently accuse the Jesuits as abettors of such doctrines. They preach up the discipline and purity of the primitive age... the Sorbonnists are all enemies to the Pope and direct Jansenists." 3 The object of this was soon found out. The Clergy of

1 Dodd's Secret Policy of the English Jesuits, pp. 257, 258. The French bishops in 1700 decided that they would not tolerate those importune and malevolent men, who bring a vague and envious accusation of Jansenism against men who are good and devoted to learning and ecclesiastical business, etc. • Ibid. p. 263.

Fr. Thomas Fairfax in 1702 was the translator.

England, to whom the Jesuits had always been hostile, were, as a body, accused of Jansenism. "Some were attacked by name, with time, place, and other circumstantial matters. This affair was carried on by letters as well as by word of mouth. Providence would have it so that several of the Jesuits' letters should fall into proper hands, which plainly discover how busy the Society was in bringing in the Clergy to be guilty of Jansenism, what methods and men they made use of, what encouragements and rewards, etc." They sent charges to Rome to this effect, and the accusations were sent back to Bishop Stonor, the vicar-apostolic of the Midland district (1716-1756). They were to this effect-that pictures of prominent Jansenists were exposed in chapels belonging to the Clergy, that their converts were taught to speak disrespectfully of the Pope, with other accusations respecting indulgences, and a distinct accusation of Mr. S[ergeant ?] concerning the Provincial Letters. Fr. Sabran, the Provincial, in a letter to Cardinal Caprara, dated 5th November 1710, accuses the Clergy of having published several treatises against the Jesuits (which is an unpardonable Jansenism) . . . and in particular Dr. S[tonor?] is mentioned as a Jansenist without restriction. He complains that the vicars-apostolic did nothing against the heresy, besides printing a small book against it.2

The Clergy began to be moved. Spies were discovered, and "indiscrete blabs, who could not keep silence," were removed or banished. The first step was to force the Provincial to disclaim officially these hints. He stated before witnesses, "That he had met with no such persons as Jansenists in the south, and further added that he was newly returned from his visit in the northern parts, and that neither had he heard nor did know any person in that district who could be accused of the said opinions of Jansenism." Having obtained this official denial, which, after all, only goes as far as the Provincial's own personal experience, the Clergy wrote to Rome to deny the imputations made upon them by clandestine enemies. The Pope replied, 17th February 1711, that he had with pleasure received their declaration, which closed "the mouths of them that spake iniquity."

1 Ibid. p. 265.

Cf. Ibid. pp. 267, 268.

What was the cause of this wanton attack on the Clergy? It may perhaps be found at the college of Douai. Marlborough was besieging the town and Fr. Sabran the college.

Dodd thus accounts for it: "The Bishop of Arras (in whose diocese Douai stands) had in several things been insulted by the Jesuits of Douai and their party. The English Clergy struck in with some warmth for their diocesan, who, having had a long experience of their zeal and learning, he afterwards looked upon them with greater marks of respect than usual, and employed them in some things relating to the government of his diocese, in which the Walloon Jesuits and their friends had sometimes had a stroke. This preference is esteemed to be the origin of all those persecutions the college soon after underwent. . . . The gentleman, who is known by the name of the turbulent fellow,' [w]as a spy to lead them into the secrets and pretended abominations of the Clergy, [so] it would be requisite to show . . . what part he had in this tragedy, and how far the Jesuits made use of him. I am not ignorant that he disowns . . . being accessory and busy in this affair, and that the English Jesuits positively deny they held any correspondence with him or encouraged him to accuse the college of Jansenism. What I here advance is word for word the account given by his confederate, whom he had engaged in the same cause against Douai college, but afterwards struck with the heinousness of the fact deserted him, and before an apostolic notary and two qualified witnesses subscribed to the following Relation, which he drew up himself." 2

This is a résumé of the document: The "Turbulent Gentleman" wanting to be ordained in some other place, exposed his case to A. W., who introduced him to an English Jesuit, Fr. Pigott], then studying at Douai. Long and frequent conversations passed between them, and the Jesuit gave him to understand that it was no hard matter to procure orders, "for if he was in a mind to break off with his own superiors, the Jesuits would stand his friend." Thus allured,

1 This was Austin Newdigate Poyntz. He eventually became confessor in 1707 to the English convent at Bruges.

2 Ibid. pp. 272, 273.