y seized upon the spurious maxim,
which had been attributed to the Jesuits, "that it was lawful to do evil,
that their expected good might come:" falsehood, forgery, blasphemy, false
witness, murder, regicide; every crime that a bad heart could suggest, a
perverted head direct, or a venal arm perpetrate, was resorted to, to
attain that _summum bonum_, jacobinism. They had before them the _Monita
Secreta_ and the Institute, and they chose the {211} former for the basis
of their constitutions. I need not repeat the infamous doctrines collected
in that forgery, which was published at the end of the pamphlet, that
induced me to undertake to write these pages, and of which Clericus has
given us an account in the following Letters; suffice it to say, by way of
contrast, that horrors are there piled high one upon another, and said to
be the secret code of regulations of men, who profess to take the institute
of Ignatius for their guide, a code replete with piety and virtue. I have
already said enough to silence the remark, that men may profess only and
not act, for I have shown, that, if ever men acted up to their professions,
the Jesuits have; but it will be an agreeable task to put some of the
points of the institute, which have been distorted, into the view in which
truth requires they should be seen.

First, let us glance an eye over the contents of this institute. It
contains, not only what the founder wrote, but likewise all the papal {212}
bulls and briefs granted to the society; all the decrees and canons of the
several congregations, which form laws in the society; several
instructions, precepts, and ordinations, issued by different generals, and
adopted by general congregations, for universal practice; the general
_Ratio Studiorum_; the privileges granted to the society by the holy see;
the particular rules prescribed for every office in the society, and for
every class of men in it, as priests, missionaries, preachers, students,
&c. The groundwork of all this is what the founder himself wrote; _viz._ an
_Examen Generale_ to be proposed to candidates for admittance;
_Constitutiones Societatis Jesu_; an epistle _De Virtute Obedientiae_; a
book of _Spiritual Exercises_; and, finally, many of the particular rules
of offices. The Prague edition of the Institute, anno 1757, two small folio
volumes, lies before me, and I have taken a good deal of fruitless trouble
to find out some propositions denounced by the enemies of the