approximate the dissident members of the universal church, and tend to restore that unity and that uniformity which must be the constant prayer of every sincere Christian. Alas! their views have been interrupted, their kopes defeated, and their prayers have not yet been granted. The superstitions and corruptions, and lying wonders of the Romish church, are only the more inveterate. are still sturdily defended. Its prospects of aggrandisement are as seducing as c. Its partizans continue to yield to a divided and a partial allegiance. The Protestants see, with horror, the re-thment of the Jesuits; and they listen, in vigilant anxiety, for the reclamation great Roman Catholic Powers, particularly the princes of the House of Bourbon; once more in possession of their sceptres. Is it that Europe enjoys not yet that degree of repose which may enable those princes to advert to the affairs of their church? The Pope, notwithstanding, has lost not a moment in placing his Janissaries (as the Jesuits have been called) on their former establishment. Is it that the sovereigns are occupied in enlarging, rounding, securing, exchanging, their own dominions, and parcelling out (as sound policy seems to demand those of the feebler states? The Protestant Advocate, at all events, will take the liberty of informing them, that the Jesuits will soon usurp a share in their territories, and direct, at will, the government of each. Let them look back to the state of affairs a very few years previous to the suppression, and let them rest assured that ere long they will be involved in the same disputes, and undergo the fears of assassination at home, and the mortification of denials and affronts at Rome.-In turning over some of the public journals of those times, we have seen the difficulties with which the princes had to struggle, and the straits to which they were reduced. Never man acted a more politic part than Ganganelli. Compliance with the demands of the sovereigns saved the popedom. In a short time, his authority must have been renounced by the states of Europe, in the same way as it was thrown off by our Henry VIII. tired out with the delays and temporizing artifices of the court of Rome. Ganganelli's moderation saved his churth,-but who can foretell what Pius's appetency for power may occasion? What is detailed in the journals of the times we have mentioned, is now matter of history; and one cannot but congratulate future generations on the fund of historical authority laid up for them in our periodical publications, interchangeably checked, and mutually corrected by one another, accordingly as their editors, or authors, have espoused different sides in the discussion of different questions, or the recording of different occurrences. We shall not fatigue our readers with detailing the entire mass of the notes which we have made, but we think it only

their natural sovereigns, and to their native

proper to shew them such a portion of the proceedings in different states a little antecedent to the suppression of the Jesuits, as may enable them to discern the strong measures to which princes, the most friendly to the church of Rome, were reduced, before they could prevail upon the Pope to abolish the inculpated order. We shall just lift up - corner of the veil which hangs over the period of which weak. It may be proper to remind the reader that Pope Cat XIII. commenced his reign in Successor, Clement XIV. put on the triple

1758, and his immedi

crown in 1760

he latter tells us, in the very Bull of suppression, that

as he was raised to the chair of St. Peter, the same prayers, demands, and wishes" which were urged upon his predecessor, were preferred to him. He took no less than four years to study the case of the Jesuits, and to determine the course of proceeding which it might become him to adopt. We shall look at the feeling excited in Europe in the year 1768, the last year of Clement XIII; we shall then give a reprint of the Bull, in English; and probably we shall shew, in a few instances, the way in which it was received, and some of the circumstances which attended its execution.

At Rome (date, Feb. 26th) the anxieties of the Pope were increased by an alarming measure on the part of the King of the Two Sicilies, who, as heir of the house of Farnese, "laid claim to the church and convent of Jesus, occupied by the Jesuits in that city." The palace, with the church belonging to it, being one of the most superb buildings in Rome, and the residence of the General of the Jesuits. Few of the princes of that time shewed a more unfriendly feeling towards the Pope than Ferdinand, then a young man, unbroken in spirit, and unconscious of the bitter reverses of fortune which have since befallen him. He married his Queen in 1768, and the aged Pontiff was very urgent, in order to save appearances, that her Majesty should pass through Rome, in her bridal progress, from Vienna to Naples. It is recorded in a letter from Rome (dated June 11th) that contrary to expectation, the Queen of Naples did stop at that city on her journey, a mark of conciliation supposed to have been occasioned by a Brief [of such importance was the visit esteemed,] sent by the Pope to the grand Duke of Tuscany, [Leopold, of the house of Austria,] wherein the Pontiff exhorted him "to engage his Sicilian Majesty not to give the enemies of the holy see such a triumph, as that the daughter and sister of a Catholic Emperor passed near the capital of Christendom! [such the Romanists always wish it to be deemed,] without entering it, and without fulfilling the duty [one of the Pope's duties,] of visiting the holy places, and particularly the church of St. Peter, the metropolitan church

of the whole Catholic world!" This is not begging a question, but as serting an assumption.

Matters run very high between the King of Naples and the Pope. His Holiness had published a brief against the Duke of Parma, (who, as well as the King, was an Infant of Spain,) and that his Majesty might compel the Pope to revoke the Brief, he made an irruption into the Papal territories, and took possession of Benevento and Ponte Corvo, and laid claim to the dotchies of Castro and Ronciglione, extending almost to the gates of Rome. This quarrel moved the satirical spirit of Voltaire, (one of Mr. William Eusebius Andrews's witnesses to the character of the Je suits,) who, in a letter to the Chevalier Vansommer, at that time in London, says, "Old Clement is at war with young Ferdinand. Rome and Naples cannot agree, and the Pope makes use of his worn-out arms against a prince who has bayonets and muskets. France, Spain, and Portugal join their arms with the latter, and prove by an argument ad hominem, that Clement dotes, and that he ought to submit, so as to recal his Bull, which is the shame of the Vatican. But the sovereign Pontiff regards it as a point of conscience, and intends, by his obstinacy, to join the crown of martyrdom to the tiara of the Pontiff, as if [adds Mr. Andrews's consistent witness,] God loved the Jesuits well enough to grant the palm to their grand admiral!"-Letters from Rome, (dated June 18th,) assert, that upon the Pope's refusal to withdraw the Brief against the Duke of Parma, the ministers of France and Spain said to him, "your Holiness must not be surprized if you should hear the news of Avignon and Ronciglione being taken." Nor was this an empty threat, for France seized Carpentras and Cavaillon in the Venaissin, and Avignon, once the resi dence of the Pope, or the Anti-pope, at the time when schism rent the Romish church in twain, and one Pope excommunicated his rival, who falminated an anathema in return. The vice-legate and his guards went from Avignon to Antibes, to embark for Rome.

*

The Jesuits, 1,500 in number, had been expelled from the Neapolitan

* An article dated Paris, July 17, in 1769, informs us that the Pope (Ganganelli) had written to the King, that his Majesty was master of Avignon, and might keep it if be pleased. That his Holiness would use no violent means to oppose it. That he (his. Holiness) had no other title to it but a long possession, much the same as all other moarchs might found their possessions on. That as to the rest, he left every thing entirely to bis most Christian Majesty, the eldest son of the church, to determine; and that he submitted every thing to the conscience and understanding of so wise and discerning a prince. As to the suppression of the Jesuits, his Holiness expressed himself in ambiguous terms, and seemed desirous of protracting 'that affair.-In fact, the Pope (as we have observed) did not issue his Bull till after four years' deliberation.

territories, and on February 6, the junto appointed at Naples for the administration of their effects ordered sale to be made of every thing they possessed; the amount not to be confiscated, but to be expended in charitable uses and at the same time, such was the odium in which the Jesuits were held, that no book written by a Jesuit was allowed to be sold or kept by the booksellers. Not even those were excepted relating to the mathematics.

The Pope placed all the militia in the legation of Urbino (6,000) under arms, and a garrison at Fort Urbin, on the frontiers of Modena, was reinforced by the militia of Ravenna.

The contest between the Pope and the princes of Christendom seems to have raged with particular violence at Parma. So early as January 23, in the eventful year 1768, the Duke of Parma caused a pragmatic sanction to be published, consisting of four articles:-1. None of the subjects of the infant Duke shall carry to any foreign tribunal, "not even to Rome," any matters in dispute, "without the express permission of his royal highness." 2. None, but by similar leave, shall have recourse to foreign princes for procuring, within the state of Parma, "any benefice, or other ecclesiastical favours." [This is in the spirit of our statute against provisors.] 3. Benefices, of all kinds, abbies, dignities, &c. shall not be possessed in future by any "but the subjects of the Infant, and with his permission." [This goes far beyond a beggarly veto.] 4. All Bulls, Briefs, and writings from abroad, or from Rome, are declared null and void. After this "note of preparation," in the night between February 7th and 8th, all the Jesuits in the territories of Parma were expelled at the same hour, and such precautions were taken as prevented any disturbance. On the morning following, the order was proscribed by a prag matic sanction, and not even a single Jesuit was so much as to pass through the Parmesan.-The Duke affected not to believe that the offensive Bull had been issued from Rome,-" from a Pontiff so holy, so enlightened, and so sagacious as the present reigning Pope;"-and he ordered (Feb. 20) his subjects to believe that in effect "this piece did not come from his Holiness."

At Venice, (in January,) a decree was published forbidding the mendicant orders, and the Jesuits, from receiving any novices for twenty years.

At Malta, (in March,) the Jesuits were all arrested in one night, and ordered to depart from the island; and some powers vested, by the church of Rome, in the inquisitor resident in that island, were utterly disregarded.

In Spain, the orders of the King were carriedno effect, concerning the

Jesuits of Paraguay. Here they were very formidable, but the ordinance of the King was not resisted. The inhabitants of the country, who were thought to be strongly attached to them, made not the least commotion, but contented themselves with some expressions of regret. The King purchased certain houses belonging to the Jesuits, of their creditors for 900,000 crowns.

In the midst of all this combustion, it is natural to expect that the church of Rome would have recourse to her old artifices of prodigies, and that attempts would be made to play off a miracle or two in her behalf. Accordingly, in the island of Majorca, an image of the Virgin, standing over the door of one of the houses out of which the Jesuits had been exorcised, was stated to have joined its hands together, then to extend its arms, and lastly to cross them over its breast; and these motions were interpreted as manifest expressions of grief occasioned by the expulsion of the Jesuits; for Majorca afforded no refuge for the fraternity, but was involved in the general order for driving them out of the Spanish territories. (They had been expelled from the continent of Spain in the preceding year. They were obliged to quit Portugal in 1759.) The reported miracle gained credit with the populace of Majorca. They assembled in crowds, and vented imprecations against those who were supposed to have taken an active part in the proscription and expatriation of the society. The governor and the bishop of the island were reduced to the necessity of exposing the miraculous statue to the people, and convincing them that it consisted of stone, and consequently that its arms were immoveable. The insurrection, however, was not quelled without committing several of the rioters to prison.

The Pope, who had in vain instituted negociations between Cardinal Negroni, the new secretary of state (who had succeeded Cardinal Torregiani, the great patron of the Jesuits), and the ministers of the allied powers, had recourse to another, but a more humiliating expedient ;his Holiness* wrote a supplicatory letter to the Queen of Hungary (Maria Theresa), in which he begged of her, most earnestly, to interpose her mediation, in settling the matters in dispute between himself and the house of Bourbon.† Among other remarkable expressions in this epistle,

Clement XIII. (Rezzonico) died, Feb. 2, 1768, at Rome. On opening his body appeared that his death was occasioned by an extraordinary dilatation of the vessels of the heart. He sunk under the oppression of spirits, occasioned by anxiety of mind and a weight of grief.

+ It may be proper to shew the reader how vehemently the King of Spain, at a later period, desired the extinction of the obnoxious order. In May 1771, the King of Spain, conceiving from circumstances that the French King entertained some thoughts