of
Mohiloff, and gave him a Jesuit as a coadjutor. She permitted, at the same
time, the establishment of a seminary of Jesuits, the direction of which
was confided to father Gabriel Denkiewitz, appointed vicar-general of his
order. In the year 1783, she sent the archbishop of Mohiloff's coadjutor,
whose name was Benelawski, to Rome, as minister from the court of Russia,
who carried a letter from her to Pius VI, demanding the re-establishment of
the society of Jesuits, which, though at the time disavowed at Petersburgh,
through deference to the Greek Christians, was actually written with her
own hand. The following passages are extracted from the letter: "I know,
that your holiness is under considerable {124} embarrassments. Your dignity
cannot harmonize with politics, so long as politics are at variance with
religion. The motives, which have induced me to grant protection to the
Jesuits, are founded in reason and justice, as well as on the hope of their
becoming useful to my states. This assemblage of peaceable and inoffensive
men shall live in my empire, because, of all catholic societies, they are
the best qualified to instruct my subjects, and to inspire them with
sentiments of humanity and the genuine principles of the Christian
religion. I am resolved to support these priests against every power
whatever; and, in so doing, I only perform my duty, as I am their
sovereign, and look upon them as faithful, useful, and innocent subjects. I
am so much the more desirous of seeing four of them invested with the power
of confirming at Moscow and Petersburgh, as the two catholic churches of
those cities are confided to their care[48]." The pope made the
circumstance {125} known to the French and Spanish ambassadors, who
consulted their respective courts, neither of which, however, chose openly
to interfere. It was an embarrassing situation for Pius VI; the suppression
of the order was too recent; he wished neither to treat the memory of
Clement XIV with disrespect, nor to embroil himself with France or Spain;
and, in complying with the request of Catherine, he acted with
circumspection and without parade. In considering this event, an obvious
remark presents itself: for upwards of thirty years past, the society of
the Jesuits have been established in Russia, yet we hear nothing of that
empire being disturbed either with religious or civil broils, fomented by
them; though I should not be surprised, if, on reflection, the death